Photo: A.J. Rebecchi (2025)
Karen Frostig is a visual artist, public memory artist, writer, and cultural historian. She holds a position as a Professor at Lesley University and is a Scholar at the Women Studies Research Center and the Brandeis-Hadassah Institute at Brandeis University. Her work as an activist and artist focuses on creating spaces of remembrance.
She is the Founding Director of the Locker of Memory memorial project (2019-) in Latvia and the Founding Director of The Vienna Project (2013-2014), a large-scale public memorial in Vienna.
Her work has been presented to international audiences, including the United Nations General Assembly in 2023. She has received national attention from major news outlets like the New York Times for her memorial projects, which have reached a global audience.
In 2025, Karen was commissioned by Latvia’s Jewish Community to create the concept and design for a new permanent memorial at the Jungfernhof concentration camp.
Selected Publications and Interviews
about My Work
Frostig, K. (2024). “A Gathering in Boston: Remembering the Jungfernhof Concentration Camp.” Ivar Brod (Ed). In The Latvian Jewish Courier. August 2024|Tammuz/Av, 5784. Jewish Survivors of Latvia, Inc. Vol. 38, No. 1, pp.4-6. Taken from <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57d6e4024402432e8c507af9/t/66ce7d7d4b93cc017ea1b9e3/1724808582417/Courier+August+2024.pdf>
Goldenberg, A. (2024). The Dead Under The Potato Field. The missing mass grave: 3800 German and Austrian Jews died in a concentration camp in Riga. But the planned memorial is missing. July 3, 2024. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. No. 52, p. 13. Taken from <https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/in-einem-kz-in-riga-starben-3800-juden-doch-das-grab-wird-gesucht-19827990.html>
Frostig, K. (2024). Report about Jungfernhof. Endangered Sites. International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). 23.08.2023. Taken from <https://holocaustremembrance.com/what-we-do/our-work/ihra-project-safeguarding-sites>
Blumberg, D. L. (2024). “Nearly 4,000 Jews died at Jungfernhof, a Nazi camp in Latvia. This artist is fighting for a memorial to them.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Culture. 17.05.24. Taken from https://www.jta.org/2024/05/17/culture/nearly-4000-jews-died-at-jungfernhof-a-nazi-camp-in-latvia-this-artist-is-fighting-for-a-memorial-to-them
Article syndicated to four additional newspapers, including: The Jerusalem Post, The Forward, The Times of Israel, Cleveland Jewish News, and Tachles the Jewish Magazine (Switzerland).
Imran, A. (2023). “Unlocking forgotten memories of the Holocaust: An artist’s journey to uncover her family history grew into a decades long mission to establish a memorial for the victims of the Jungfernhof concentration camp.” International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. 23.08.2023. Taken from https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/news-archive/unlocking-forgotten-memories-holocaust
United Nations General Assembly Hall. (2023). Holocaust Memorial Ceremony 2023 – International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. Meetings and Events. UNWeb TV. January 27, 2023. https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1j/k1jjl8fwc5
Blumenthal, R. (2023). On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the U.N. Hears of a Little-Known Killing Field. New York Times January 27. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/arts/holocaust-remembrance-day-latvia.html?smid=em-share and updated in print Sunday January 28, 2023, Section One, p. 17.
McQuaid, C. (2023). Karen Frostig’s ‘Locker of Memory’ reclaims lost Holocaust history. Sunday Arts, N3. The Boston Globe. January 29, 2023. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/01/29/arts/karen-frostigs-locker-memory-reclaims-lost-holocaust-history/
Bolton-Fasman, J. (2023). Memorializing an Overlooked Chapter in Holocaust History: Jungfernhof. History & Holocaust. Top Pick January 25. JewishBoston https://www.jewishboston.com/read/memorializing-an-overlooked-chapter-in-holocaust-history-jungfernhof/?pagination_id_param=2
Lebovic, M. (2023). Obscure Nazi concentration camp in Latvia put back on map by art professor. The Times of Israel.20 April 2023. Taken from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/obscure-nazi-concentration-camp-in-latvia-put-back-on-map-by-art-professor/
Gizunterman, S. (2023). The Latvian Jewish Courier. June 2023/Sivan 5783. Volume 17, No. 1., pp. 1-2.
Goodman, L. (2022) Burying the past is not an option. Featured Stories. Brandeis Magazine. Winter-Spring 2022. https://www.brandeis.edu/magazine/2022/winter-spring/featured-stories/frostig.html
The Vienna Project.(2014). ORF Radio Interviews: with Kerstin Tretina. Broadcast 16.
October 2014. http://religion.orf.at/radio/stories/2675549/ and http://oe1.orf.at/artikel/389346
The Vienna Project. (2013).ORF Television Interviews: Sunday Matinee Oct. 20th, Prime Time Sunday eve. http://tv.orf.at/groups/kultur/pool/parcoursdeserinnerns.
Oct. 27th, and radio interview by mag.a barbara köppel, moderator/rproducer
Frey, E. (2013). "Vienna Project: Gedenkaktion als persönliche Identitätssuche.” Der Standard. Kopf der Tages. 24. October 2013. http://derstandard.at/1381369783900/Vienna-Project-Gedenkaktion-als-persoenliche-Identitaetssuche
I work with histories of obliteration to speak about meaning and memory. I begin with my family’s Holocaust history. I spent a decade recovering individual family stories about persecution, expulsion, and murder, including my father’s heroic efforts to save 8 Austrian Jews granted asylum in Cuba. I then focused my attention on the countries of Austria and Latvia where my family lived and were murdered, to expose larger narratives about erasure concerning historic genocides in both countries. I am especially interested in the artistry of representation that includes inventing new methodologies of engagement to address concepts of citizenship and social responsibility. I spent 20 years of research and activism, seeking to restore truth and justice to spaces of neglect, breaking through decades of silence and indifference in Austria and Latvia.
Naming Memorial at Josephplatz. Artists: Karen Frostig and Elisabeth Wildling. Photo: Christian Wind (2014)
In 2014, I created Vienna’s first inclusive Naming Memorial representing seven different victim groups, referencing two groups that had yet to receive any public acknowledgement. The names of 88,000 victims were projected onto the walls of buildings surrounding Josephplatz at the Hofburg Palace. It took another decade before Austria built its first permanent Naming Memorial for the murdered Jews of Austria.
Latvia’s willingness to remember their first Nazi concentration camp was equally challenging. I spent five years establishing an interdisciplinary project team dedicated to documenting historic and scientific evidence of this forgotten site, that would lead to installing a permanent memorial at the Jungfernhof concentration camp. The memorial project will rely on funding from three countries responsible for deporting close to 4,000 German and Austrian Jewish victims to Jungfernhof, to be murdered at the camp or in nearby forests. The call to remember the past is especially troubling, coming at a moment in history when the Soviet Union threatens once again to invade the Baltic States, while two major wars taking place in Ukraine and Gaza inflict hostage-taking, murder, famine and torture on innocent civilians. The US administration now threatens to reduce military support to the Baltic states, likely to further destabilize the region.
In an era of Holocaust distortion, denial, and Holocaust inversion, why should we remember the past? What can history teach us? Why does accountability matter decades after crimes against humanity were committed? If we forget this camp, why should we pledge to remember future crimes occurring in different regions of the world? Without justice, there is no basis for creating a new world order. And without truth, there is no justice.
Site for the memorial at Jungfernhof. Photo: Nikolajs Krasnopevcevs (2024).
Preoccupied with how human beings are valued and discarded, remembered and forgotten, I work in a variety of contexts with a range of materials. I create large-scale video installations in public space and I make small, intimate objects that evoke feelings of privacy, shame, and healing.
I am now embarking on the design of a major permanent memorial at the Jungfernhof concentration camp site. Working closely with a team of geospatial scientists led by Dr. Philip Reeder, they have recovered the foundational stones of the barracks for imprisoned Jews. This will be the designated site for memorial development.
I am also developing a series of family workshops about memory within families. I will share personal work about memory that stretches over decades. This discussion will set the stage for participants to identify significant family memories and new forms of rituals and commemoration in relation to their own family stories.
Memory inhabits the core of my being. I am drawn to the stories we inherit and the stories we live. I will also return to my studio practice in the coming months to explore new untapped frontiers that live inside of me.
Karen Frostig in Studio. Photo: A.J. Rebecchi (2025)