#Monument
Nurses of Bastogne Memorial
The Nurses of Bastogne Memorial commemorates the nurses who put their lives in danger to save those of others. The memorial especially highlights the stories of Augusta Chiwy and Renee Lemaire but is meant for all the nurses who saved many soldiers.
Installed in 2019 and unveiled officially in December 2020, the Nurses of Bastogne Memorial is dedicated to ‘the Angels of Bastogne’, Renee Lemaire and Augusta Chiwy, both women volunteered as battlefield nurses alongside the U.S. Army after the start of the Ardennes Offensive. On Christmas Eve 1944, Renee Lemaire was instantly killed when the aid station was bombed by the German Army. Augusta Chiwy survived and continued nursing the wounded in the foxholes. She passed away in 2015.
The monument more broadly honours all the nurses who have risked their lives during the Second World War. It represents tiny crosses that create one big red cross when looked at from the road. The burned wood symbolizes the bombed aid station.