“The Heroic Present: The Gypsy Photographs of Jan Yoors” will be on display in Karpen Lobby of UNC Asheville from March 1 – April 16, 2012. Yoors was just twelve years old when he left his home in Belgium in search of a group of Roma (gypsies) known as Lovara, who lived on the outskirts of Antwerp. For the next six years, he traveled widely and was informally adopted by a Lovara family. When the war began, Jan joined the British army and recruited his Roma friends to assist Allied intelligence unites in smuggling arms to the resistance. Over 1.5 million Senti Roma died is the Holocaust including most of Yoors Roma family. “The Heroic Present” is hosted by the Center for Diversity Education and organized by the Kennesaw University Museum of History and Holocaust Education, featuring extraordinary photographs of Roma life taken before and after World War II. The exhibit is open to the public Monday - Thursday from 8:00 am- 9:00 pmand Friday from 8:00 am - 6:00 pm.