GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — A swastika was found graffitied onto a Holocaust memorial in LeBauer Park in Greensboro, according to the Greensboro Jewish Federation.
On Friday, the second night of Hanukkah, the Greensboro Jewish Federation said the swastika was graffitied onto a Star of David at the base of a monument titled “She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots.” The monument has since been cleaned.
Greensboro police confirmed the vandalism. Extra security is now in place.
“The fact that antisemitism has reached our city is not new, but the desecration of a Holocaust monument in our central downtown park is beyond what most in the Jewish community here could have expected,” GJF said in a statement. “It is especially horrifying to those Holocaust survivors and their families here in town, and to all of us in the Jewish community and in the greater Greensboro community that seek to honor the memory of those who perished or endured the Shoah.”
The incident was reported to Greensboro Downtown Parks, which oversees security in the park. The parks department notified Greensboro police, who launched an investigation.
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Women of the Shoah, the non-profit behind the monument, reported the incident to the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federations of North America’s security agency, Secure Community Network.
“We ask all of you in the Greensboro Jewish community to show solidarity with us in the coming weeks as we work to quash antisemitism in our own backyard,” GJF said. “Antisemitism in Greensboro can not and will not be tolerated or ignored.”
The seven-foot-tall bronze monument was designed by artist Victoria Milstein and unveiled on April 18, 2023. The title, “She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots,” was inspired by a photograph taken by Nazi soldiers. It shows four women and a girl defiantly staring into the camera moments before they were stripped naked, shot and dumped into a mass grave. Milstein’s monument is the first and only Holocaust memorial dedicated to women.
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