The Bhopal Memorial Sculpture of an Indian mother fleeing with her baby and child

Greenpeace International has made replicas of the sculpture and brought them to events commemorating the anniversaries of the tragic gas disaster.

Artist Ruth Waterman, 72, of the Netherlands, a child survivor of the Holocaust, created the sculpture in l985 as her personal response to the l984 Bhopal chemical disaster and her connection with the victims, living and dead. Waterman’s parents and other relatives died of gassing in the Auschwitz concentration camps in Europe under Nazi occupation of Poland.

The sculpture, which stands across the street from the entrance to the abandoned Union Carbide plant (now owned by Dow Chemical) in Bhopal, was a collective effort with Waterman including residents of the nearby shanty neighborhoods adjacent to the plant participating in the work. She considers her artwork a gift to the community and a statement about the relationship between victims of gassing by multinational corporations.