Pacific Professor Lorely French Opens New York Exhibit About Roma Holocaust Survivor

Pacific University German Professor Lorely French headlines the opening of an exhibition she co-curated at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York on May 24. The exhibition celebrates the remarkable life of Ceija Stojka, an artist, writer and Holocaust survivor.

The event will feature a free reception for Pacific alumni and friends, followed by a reading from Stojka's memoir, which French translated and published in English.

French has devoted much of her recent career to translating and documenting the remarkable life of Stojka, a member of the Lowara Roma tribe of Austria who was detained and interned by Nazis at concentration camps including Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen, from which she was liberated in 1945. In her later years, Stojka was an artist and writer, and became a prominent voice calling for recognition of the Roma genocide. She died in 2013.

The reception for the exhibit, called What Should I Be Afraid Of, will be at 5 p.m., with the formal opening beginning at 7 p.m. The event is free, but advance registration is required for planning purposes.

At Pacific, French teaches undergraduate courses in German, international studies and gender and sexuality studies. 

(Photos: Top: Ceija Stojka in Vienna, 2008; Bottom, Professor Lorely French)