Ceija Stojka

Wir konnten nichts tun is the title of a painting by Ceija Stojka (1933–2013), a Holocaust survivor, artist, and Romani woman. The painting describes the situation in the concen­tra­tion camps where, as a child, she witnessed the racially motivated exter­mi­na­tion of her family and her people.

In the early 1990s, Ceija Stojka decided it was time to take action: As a self-taught artist, she began creating an extensive artistic and literary oeuvre. Through her poems and pictures, she gave expres­sion to the unspeakable and created powerful images for her memories using her own visual language. In doing so, she managed not only to banish her trauma but also to free herself from its clutches. What was once a helpless “Wir konnten nichts tun” became a powerful, political, and emanci­pa­tory act. Stojka’s art is now recognized and exhibited worldwide. She is consi­dered one of the most important pioneers of contem­porary Sinti and Roma art. The exhibi­tion at the Kunst­mu­seum Wolfsburg includes some of her most striking works from the Kai Dikhas Collec­tion, whose name trans­lates to “place to see.”

Ceija Stojka was liberated from the National Socialist regime at the Bergen-Belsen concen­tra­tion camp, not far from Wolfsburg. The camp appears repeatedly in her work, in both her poems and paintings. For a long time, Sinti and Roma were absent from the German conscious­ness as a group of prisoners and victims of genocide. Even after 1945, they continued to be margi­na­lized and stigma­tized. Only after a long struggle was their suffering recognized. Ceija Stojka was an important voice in this struggle. August 2 has now been estab­lished as European Holocaust Remem­brance Day for Sinti and Roma: On the night of August 2 to 3, 1944, the Nazis murdered more than 4,000 remaining Sinti and Roma detainees in Auschwitz-Birkenau. This exhibi­tion is being held in comme­mo­ra­tion of this event.

The exhibi­tion Ceija Stojka. Wir konnten nichts tun will open on Friday, August 1, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. Following opening remarks by Andreas Beitin, Director of the Kunst­mu­seum Wolfsburg, and an intro­duc­tion by Katrin Unger, Deputy Director of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial, a panel discus­sion with Santino Stojka, Ceija Stojka’s grandson, and Gabriela Stojka, her daughter-in-law, will provide background infor­ma­tion on the artist’s life and work. Gabriela Stojka spent her life at Ceija’s side and will share her memories with the audience—not only of Ceija’s stories, but also of her artistic work and her struggle for recogni­tion and against exclusion in the civil rights movement of the Sinti and Roma. Santino Stojka is politi­cally active: He organizes comme­mo­ra­tions in Vienna and is chairman of the HÖR (Associa­tion of Austrian Roma Students). He belongs to the next genera­tion of the long struggle for equality, at a time of a notice­able shift to the right in society, when many people are asking themselves, in reference to the title of the exhibi­tion: What can we do?

The discus­sion will be moderated by Andrea Wierich, research assistant at the Compe­tence Center against Antizi­ga­nism of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation.

Curator of the exhibi­tion: Moritz Pankok, Artistic Director of the Kai Dikhas Foundation

The exhibi­tion and opening events are taking place in coope­ra­tion with the Kai Dikhas Founda­tion and the Compe­tence Center against Antizi­ga­nism of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation.

Location: Lounge of the Kunst­mu­seum Wolfsburg, above Café Kunstpause

Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm

Curator
Moritz Pankok, Creative Director of the Founda­tion Kai Dikhas