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| Painting by Karl Stojka's sister Ceija Stojka Arrest and Deportation, 1995. Courtesy of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-rm-g-dragon-8-k-pop-boy-band-idols-collect-art |
Art as Memory – the Documentary Canvases of Karl Stojka, a Roma in Auschwitz-Birkenau
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| Fear at Auschwitz-Birkenau, June-July 1943 |
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| Buchenwald: ‘Half people, half faces.’ |
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| "Birkenau", oil on canvas, approx. 60 x 70 cm, signed, dated 1990 |
#ProtectTheFacts
Karl Stojka was 12 when the Nazis initiated mass deportations of thousands of Austrian Sinti and Roma to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943. He was arrested at his school right in the middle of a lesson and sent to the concentration camp with his family. There, he was known as “Z-5742”, a serial number tattooed on his left forearm. Z stood for “Zigeuner”, or “Gypsy” in German. Karl was assigned to work in the canteen, which allowed him to occasionally sneak some leftovers off the table to his family – a huge relief amidst starvation. When the news about the Soviet army approaching started to spread in the summer of 1944, Karl, his mother, brother and sisters – those deemed fit for continuous labour to exhaustion – were deported to other camps.
We know the story of Karl and his family because, on 2 August 1944, they were fortunate to escape death. That was the day the so-called “Gypsy family camp” in Auschwitz-Birkenau ceased to exist – and not because it had been liberated. That night, thousands of its Roma and Sinti prisoners never were able to experience freedom again because they were killed in the camp’s gas chambers. Karl’s uncle Lulo, his wife, and three children were among these victims.
Some 500,000 Roma people were systematically persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime, its allies and collaborators during the Second World War. Many more were subjected to criminal medical experiments, forced labour and torture. The Roma genocide is still under-researched and widely unknown by the general public, often leading to denial and distortion of facts about this dark chapter of history. For decades following the war, the Roma were not recognized as victims of Nazi persecution and the crimes committed against them remained unacknowledged.
After the liberation, Karl Stojka and his sister Ceija both became famous artists. They used their visibility to actively campaign for the importance of learning and acknowledging the facts about the crimes perpetrated against Roma and Sinti communities during World War II. Along with other activists, they also reminded that the Roma genocide didn’t spring out of nowhere: a centuries-long history of anti-Roma racism and discrimination could have laid the grounds for these atrocities... READ MORE https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/shedding-light-roma-genocide-take-part-protectthefacts-campaign