The Story
The Liepāja Massacre
In Latvia on Monday, Dec. 15, 1941, thousands of Jewish women, and children were taken to the women’s prison in Liepāja. From there, in the freezing cold, they were marched to a nearby beach called Skede, forced to strip to their underclothes, taken to the edge of a trench and shot dead in groups of 10. Many of the victims were photographed in their final moments by a Nazi photographer. One such photograph serves as the basis for the Women of the Shoah – Jewish Placemaking monument “She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots”.
Holocaust survivor and Women of the Shoah Board of Directors member Shelly Weiner at the monument dedicated in her parents names.
“She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots”
IN HONOR OF BRAVE MOTHERS EVA WEINER AND SOFIA GURALNIK
North Carolina’s first and only women’s Holocaust monument, an original sculpture by artist Victoria Milstein, honors the strength and resilience of all women. The Monument is a community placemaking experience in Greensboro, N.C. for the public not only to remember the Holocaust but to have a place for impactful Holocaust education. Honoring those who perished, the Monument conveys a powerful statement against the murder of women and children, antisemitism, genocide and all hate. The Monument is art that requires social engagement and the participation of its audience: the act of looking through the camera, where the spectator becomes a witness, to see and feel the opposite of what the Nazi photographer was documenting. The Monument “She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots”, the memorial of the December 15th, 1941 Liepāja massacre, is a voice for women and children which says …. We will put our boots on…. We will resist …. We will be the witness …. Arm in arm… We will build a more just society for all communities.
In The Artist’s Words
We see the strength and the humility of generations of Jewish women from Liepaja, moments before they were murdered by Nazis in 1941. They stand in their innocence; their only crime was that they were Jews. The photo I used as inspiration for the monument was taken by a Nazi photographer to document the victories of the Nazi regime as propaganda for its German citizens. My hope is that each time one views the monument from that perspective, one becomes witness to exactly the opposite of what the Nazi photographer intended to document.
Standing arm-in-arm are five women in their last act, looking straight at us today, with grace, humanity and defiance. The older woman, asked to strip, stands in the center with her boots on as she clutches onto the arms of generations of women in her family. The two figures on the end of the grouping bring us physically into the sculpture, revealing an emotional narrative of their impending death. With a snap of the camera we almost can’t comprehend the innocence that we see. One sees the subtle emotions of fear, disbelief, terror and even hope. The youngest, with her head bent, clutches her fists, communicating the human horror of the Holocaust and reminding us of the several million children that were exterminated.
I was very influenced by Rodin’s sculpture of the “The Burghers of Calais” where each figure communicates the emotional journey of their impending death. When I first saw the photograph, I saw my sisters, Jewish women, and it changed me forever. You can’t un-see what you have seen.
Victoria Milstein
Monument Artist
Participants look through the bronze camera and become a witness.