GREENSBORO, N.C. — North Carolina's first and only women's Holocaust memorial now resides in Greensboro.
The monument entitled "She Wouldn't Take Off Her Boots" was unveiled in LeBauer Park Tuesday.
It was inspired by the Liepāja massacre in 1941.
On December 15, 1941 thousands of Jewish women and children were taken to a women's prison in Liepāja, Latvia, forced to strip to their undergarments, and then shot in groups of ten.
The photos of the women and children who died that day were taken by a Nazi photographer. One of these photographs-featuring a woman who refused to take off her boots- is what artist Victoria Milstein used to sculpt the monument- a work that took years of planning and designing.
The Women of the Shoah organization who spearheaded the project said the memorial also has a multimedia component that allows visitors to scan QR codes and listen to stories from survivors and children of survivors of the Holocaust. These stories are also told by survivors who have lived or currently live in Greensboro.
The Women of the Shoah hopes this work will honor the resilience and strength of women.
The monument is also named in honor of Sofia Guralnik and Eva Weiner who saved their children from the Holocaust by hiding them for two years in Nazi-occupied Poland. One of the children-Shelly Weiner resides in Greensboro and contributed to helping the project continue.
"She Wouldn't Take Off Her Boots" monument is now available to be seen at LeBauer Park.
For more information on the memorial visit the Women of the Shoah website.
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