In Liepāja, Latvia, on December 15, 1941, thousands of Jewish women and children were taken to the women’s prison where they were stripped and shot dead. Many of the victims were photographed in their final moments by a Nazi photographer. One such photograph serves as the inspiration for “She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots,” an original sculpture by artist Victoria Milstein. It is the North Carolina’s first Women’s Holocaust Memorial Monument.
Milstein was inspired by a photograph of five females huddled together moments before their death. She said the older woman in the middle of the black-and-white photo refused to obey orders to strip and kept her boots on “in an act of defiance.”
The sculptor was inspired to create the memorial after a trip to Poland in 2018 where she visited the Auschwitz concentration camp and left wanting to document the journey of the women and children of the Holocaust. The memorial is also named in honor of Sofia Guralnik and Eva Weiner who saved their children by hiding them for two years from the Nazis. One of those children, Shelly Weiner, a Greensboro resident contributed to the memorial project.
The Monument is intended to be a statement against the murder of women and children, antisemitism, genocide and all hate. The Monument is actually viewed through a sculptural camera, making the spectator a witness.
The monument, located in LaBauer Park, was dedicated in a ceremony on April 18, 2023. The non-profit Women of the Shoah planned and coordinated all aspects of this Holocaust memorial and monument. The monument cost $725,000 ($250,000 of which was appropriated by the NC General Assembly from the General Fund.)
Inscriptions:
Memorial base: IN HONOR OF BRAVE MOTHERS EVA WEINER AND SOFIA GURALINK
Back of camera: THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE / IS NOT HATE / IT IS INDIFFERENCE
Memorial marker: SHE WOULDN’T TAKE HER BOOTS OFF / BY VICTORIA MILSTEIN / DEDICATED BY SHELLY WEINER AND RACHAEL / KIZHNERMAN TO HONOR THEIR BRAVE MOTHERS / EVA WEINER AND SOFIA GURALINK
ERECTED THIS 18TH DAY OF APRIL, 2023 / YOM HASHOAH / HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY / LEBAUR PARK, GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
THIS MEMORIAL MONUMENT SHALL STAND AS A / GIFT TO THE CITY OF GREENSBORO IN HONOR OF ALL / WOMEN AND CHILDREN WHO ENDURED OR PERISHED IN / THE HOLOCAUST, AND IN REMEMBRANCE OF ALL / VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE. HERE IS A SPACE TO BEAR / WITNESS TO THE HUMANITY OF ALL PEOPLE.
The memorial also has a multimedia component that allows visitors to scan QR codes to listen to stories of survivors and children of Holocaust survivors who have lived in Greensboro.
