Did You Know?
The Vrouemonument (Women's Monument) in Bloemfontein, Free State, is a war memorial dedicated to the women and children who died in British concentration camps during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902). The monument was unveiled on 16 December 1913, not in 1900; the year 1900 refers to the early period of the war, when the first concentration camps were established. It was designed by the architect Frans Soff and features a central bronze statue of a woman and her dying child, sculpted by Anton van Wouw, with a relief panel by the artist Emily Hobhouse, who is also buried at the base of the monument. The site commemorates the approximately 26,000 women and children who perished in the camps, as well as Boer civilians who died during the conflict. The monument stands as a significant symbol of Afrikaner suffering and identity, and it was later expanded in 1938 with the addition of a memorial to the Boer soldiers who died in the war. The surrounding precinct includes a museum and the National Women's Monument, which is a provincial heritage site in South Africa.
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