Ceija Stojka

Ceija Stojka (b. 23 March 1933 at Steiermark) is an Austrian Romany writer, painter and musician, survivor of the Holocaust.

She is from the Lovari caste, the fifth of six children, sister of Karl Stojka and Mongo Stojka, also writers and musicians. Together with her mother and four of the five brothers she survived the Holocaust and the internment at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Her father was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, then to Schloss Hartheim, where he was killed.

After the end of the World War II their family saw the lack of acknowledgement of the Porajmos in Austria, the population’s ignorance concerning this suffering and the continuation of some anti-Romani policies. The publication of her first autobiographic book in 1988, "We Live in Seclusion. The Memories of a Romni" made public the issues concerning the Nazi persecution of the Austrian Romani people (later continued in 1992, when "Travellers on This World" was published).

Works

* "Wir leben im Verborgenen. Erinnerungen einer Rom-Zigeunerin" "We Live in Seclusion. The Memories of a Romni" (1988)
* "Reisende auf dieser Welt" "Travellers on This World" (1992)
* "Meine Wahl zu schreiben - ich kann es nicht" (2003 - Gedichte)
* "Me Diklem Suno" "I dreamt" (Audio-CD)
* "Träume ich, dass ich lebe? Befreit aus Bergen-Belsen" (2005)

External links

* [http://romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/pers/stojkas.en.xml The Stojka family]
* [http://www.blonnet.com/life/2005/09/09/stories/2005090900060300.htm A Holocaust survivor] (article at The Hindu)
* [http://www.jmw.at/en/pressetext_ceija_stojka__en_.html Presentation at Jewish Museum Vienna]