Midtown - Downtown in Columbia in Richland County, South Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic)
The Columbia (S.C.) Holocaust Memorial
Remember
(Star of David)
In Sacred
Memory
Of The
6,000,000
(Map Included)
(Left Panel)
During the Holocaust, 1933 - 45, six million European Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Millions more of the innocent suffered persecution and death as victims of the State-sponsored Nazi Tyranny.
1920 League Of Nations meets in Geneva.
Nazi Party meets in Munich.
1925 Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf is published.
1927 Jewish cemeteries in Germany are desecrated
by Nazis.
1928 Nazis win 12 Reichstag seats.
1932 Nazis establish the faith movement of German
Christians- Nationalistic, anti Catholic, anti
Semitic, and Anti- marxist. Nazis win 230
Reichstag seats.
1933 Concentration camp is established at Dachau.
Hitler is appointed Chancellor.
German Government institutes boycott of Jewish
lawyers, doctors, and merchants.
Jews and other non-Aryans are banned from
jobs in law and civil service, as well as jobs
in music, art, broadcasting, theater, and farming.
Quota for Jews are begun in education. The
Gestapo is established. Nazi Party is declared
the only legal political party.
1934 Anne Frank's family moves from Frankfort to
Amsterdam. Hitler assumes presidential power,
orders buildup of armed forces. Nazis begin
persecution of homosexuals.
1935 Nuremberg laws are enacted, depriving Jews
of citizenship.
1936 Nazis reoccupy the Rhineland. A 25-percent
tax is placed on all Jewish assets.
1937 Buchenwald concentration camp is established.
1938 German-Austrian Anschluss is created.
Czechoslovakia is divided. England, France
and Italy appease Hitler. Anti-Jewish pogrom
Kristallnacht is carried out in Germany
and Austria. Nazis expropriate Jewish property.
1939 At the Evian Conference, 29 nations refuse to
take in additional Jewish refugees. British
"White Paper" limits Jewish refugees into
Palestine. World War II begins, Nazis and
Soviets invade Poland. Jews are forced to
wear the yellow star. Nazis establish Jewish
ghettos in Poland. 6,000 Jehovah's Witnesses
are held in concentration camps. Nazis
deport German Romanies (Gypsies).
(Right panel)
1940 Denmark, Norway, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium
France and Romania fall. Auschwitz concentration
camp is established. German bombers blitz
England. Berlin-Rome- Tokyo Axis is formed
Warsaw ghetto is established.
1941 Nazis invade Soviet Union. Nazis plan "Final
Solution To The Jewish Problem." Mass
murder of 33,000 Jews take place at Babi Yar.
United States enters World War II.
1942 Wannsee Conference is held to ensure
interagency cooperation in the extermination
of the Jews. Anne Frank's family goes into
hiding in Amsterdam. Death camps are
established in the Polish villages of Belzec,
Sobibor, and Treblinka. Gassings begin at
Auschwitz and Maidanek in Poland.
1943 Greek Jews are deported to Auschwitz.
Jews revolt in Warsaw ghetto and in
Treblinka and Sobibor. United Nations
War Crimes Commission is created.
1944 Anne Frank's family is arrested. Hungarian
Jews are deported to Auschwitz. Soviet
troops advance. Death marches begin.
Lodz, the last ghetto, is liquidated.
Jewish sonderkommando revolt at
Auschwitz. Allies invade Normandy
on D-Day, June 6. Allied troops enter Rome,
Paris and Brussels. The Battle of the Bulge
begins December 16. Nazis force American
POWS and Jews into slave labor.
1945 Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz-Birkenau
and Maidanek. Anne Frank dies of Typhus
shortly before the British liberate Bergen-
Belsen. American troops liberate Dachau.
Hitler commits suicide in Berlin. Germany
signs unconditional surrender. Japan
surrenders. War-crimes trials begin
in Nuremberg. Anti-Jewish riots erupt in
Krakow.
1946 Jewish leaders are tortured and murdered
near Krakow and Lodz. Pogrom erupts in
Kielce, Poland, with 42 killed. Anti-Semitism
continues. 100,000 Polish Jews leave their
homeland.
This map depicts the location of the
Death and Concentration Camps
where the Nazi Germans implented
their "Final Solution,"
the murder of 6,000,000 Jews.
(Rear Left Panel)
I have never felt able to describe my emotional reactions when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency...
I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda.'
—General Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Supreme Commander of the Allied
Forces in Europe, 1945
South Carolina Liberators
(list of 44 names)
(Rear Right Panel)
I believe in the sun, even when it does not shine,
I believe in love, even when it is not shown.
I believe in God, even when he does not speak.
— Inscribed on a wall by a Holocaust victim
South Carolina Holocaust Survivors
(Three Columns 87 names)
Erected 2001.
Topics and series. This historical marker and memorial is listed in this topic list: War, World II. In addition, it is included in the Former U.S. Presidents: #34 Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the The Holocaust series lists. A significant historical date for this entry is June 6, 1997.
Location. 34° 0.154′ N, 81° 2.557′ W. Marker is in Columbia, South Carolina, in Richland County. It is in Midtown - Downtown. Marker is on Hampton Street near Wayne Street. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Columbia SC 29201, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. South Carolina Gold Star Families (a few steps from this marker); China - Burma - India Veterans (within shouting distance of this marker); A Tribute To All U.S. Military Personnel On This Day Of Infamy (within shouting distance of this marker); Korean War Memorial (within shouting distance of this marker); South Carolina State Vietnam War Memorial (within shouting distance of this marker); US Navy WWII / The Sailor (within shouting distance of this marker); USS Columbia CL-56 (within shouting distance of this marker); "The Spirit of the American Doughboy " (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Columbia.
Regarding The Columbia (S.C.) Holocaust Memorial. Pogrom; riot, mob violence
Also see . . .
1. The Columbia Holocaust Memorial Monument. was unveiled and dedicated on June 6, 2001, the 57th anniversary of D-Day. The Monument memorializes South Carolina Holocaust survivors, liberators, and those who perished. (Submitted on July 4, 2011, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina.)
2. Gloria by Irwin Hyman, taken from the commemorative booklet distributed at that ceremony, 6/6/2001. I sculpted my first Holocaust memorial over 35 years ago. It was cast in bronze. It measured 24" high by 20" wide. During the World's Fair held in New York, it was placed as the centerpiece surrounded by the letters of Anne Frank. There are now over 350 replicas of this sculpture around the world. It was the horror of this astounding evil which resulted in the deliberate destruction of 6,000,000 Jews for no other reason than that they were Jewish, that guided my hands in sculpting this memorial.
Since that time, in addition to hundreds of bronze, wood and stone sculptures, I have had eight commissions for Holocaust memorials in many materials. This Holocaust memorial is the largest I have ever designed and the fourth in granite.
I take pictures of my work. Gloria enjoys when I bring in the film for her to develop. Gloria is about 30 something years old. She loves to comment on my work. When she saw the last Holocaust memorial, which was dedicated in Boca Raton, Florida last March, she whistled and said:
"600,000 people died?"
"That's 6 million people, Gloria."
"6 million people? How did they die?"
"They were killed by the German Nazis during World War II."
"Why?" she asked.
"Because they were Jewish."
"Just because they were Jewish?" she puzzled.
"Just because they were Jewish. No other reason, Gloria.
The Nazis killed 40% of all the Jews in the world during World War II just because they were Jewish."
"Gee, that's something," she said.
"I never heard of that."
"You never heard of the Holocaust?"
"No, I didn't ever hear of that."
I left Gloria depressed and puzzled. Is it possible that pernicious evil which took the lives of 6,000,000 Jews will be forgotten? How could a reasonably educated person in her 30's not know of the Holocaust? Has the number 6,000,000 just become a number without any specific meaning? Will anybody ever know that in camp, Lubin-Maidenek. the Nazis shot and killed 25,000 Jews in one day? I want to convey the frightening reality of the number 6,000,000 when we dedicate my memorial. How can I personalize it for those who will stand in front of this granite reminder of the monumental, senseless destruction of human life?
Perhaps if one can imagine every man, woman and child in the entire state of South Carolina being murdered. Not one living being left in South Carolina. Not a sound but the retreating murderers on their way to North Carolina where they are going to kill 2,000,000 more to accomplish the total of 6,000,000. Think of the horror.
For the sake of those tortured, murdered souls whose only crime was being born Jewish we must never let the world forget. And Gloria never heard of the Holocaust. (Submitted on July 4, 2011, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina.)
Credits. This page was last revised on February 16, 2023. It was originally submitted on July 4, 2011, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina. This page has been viewed 1,019 times since then and 41 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on July 4, 2011, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina. 3, 4, 5. submitted on July 5, 2011, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina.