Combating Antisemitism: Holocaust Memorials and Education in Connecticut

Fairfield University has installed a bronze Holocaust memorial sculpture titled “She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots” on its campus.

The artwork, created by artist Victoria Milstein, honors five Jewish women who resisted compliance during the Holocaust. The sculpture depicts the women with one wearing knee-high boots while the others are barefoot. A bronze camera is integrated into the piece, symbolizing the lens of a Nazi photographer used to document the victims’ final moments.

The memorial is a second iteration of a sculpture first installed in April 2023 at LeBauer Park in Greensboro, North Carolina. Paul Burger, a Fairfield native and resident of Wilton, founded the nonprofit Shoah Memorial Fairfield, Connecticut, to bring the work to the university after encountering the original piece in North Carolina.

The installation includes an interactive component consisting of signage equipped with QR codes. When scanned, these codes play audio recordings of Holocaust survivors living in the Fairfield area, who discuss their experiences during the Holocaust and the impact those events have on their lives today.

Carey Mack Weber, the Frank and Clara Meditz Executive Director of the Fairfield University Art Museum, stated that the museum intends to utilize the monument to provide educational opportunities for the campus community and the broader region. To ensure the sculpture’s long-term preservation, the university has established an accompanying endowment fund for its maintenance, and care.

The installation of the memorial occurs as Fairfield Prep manages contemporaneous issues regarding student antisemitism.