Obj. ID: 44791  Holocaust memorial in Monument Park in Columbia, SC, USA, 2001

Who is Commemorated?

South Carolina Holocaust survivors, liberators, and those who perished.

Description: 

The Monument is in Columbia's Memorial Park in downtown Columbia on four acres of land. The property is bordered by Hampton, Gadsden, Washington, and Wayne Streets and is one block south of Finlay Park. The park contains several other public memorial monuments.

The monument stands on a pavement made of irregularly shaped gray granite stones, laid in the shape of a Magen David. The upright monument consists of three joined parts. In the center, raised on two light gray granite steps, is a rectangular darker gray granite stele-type slab of which the top is cut in the shape of an off-kilter Magen David within which the word ZACHOR in Hebrew, and the English “Remember” are inscribed. On the front of this part of the monument, near the center, is a short dedicatory inscription: "In Sacred Memory of 6,000,000," Beneath this is an inscribed map of Europe showing the location of major camps and killing sites. On the other side of this stele are engraved representational images recalling the concentration camps.

The central stele is flanked by two large rectangular black granite slabs that sit directly on the pavement. On one face of these is a inscribed a timeline of the Holocaust. and on the other are listed names of Holocaust liberators and survivors of South Carolina.

Four simple gray granite benches without backs encircle the monument. Each of these is inscribed with a quote from a survivor or liberator, with one from Jadzia Stern, who began this monument project.

Inscription

Central panel, front

Inside Magen David:

זכור

Translation: Remember

Remember

In the center, above map:

 In sacred
memory
of the
6,000,000

Front, 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).

Front, 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 implemented
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 two columns with 44 names)

Rear, Center (beneath images):

May God Remember them for good
with all the righteous of the world.
— The Jewish Prayer Book

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 with 87 names)

Commissioned by

Columbia Holocaust Memorial Committee (Lilly Filler, chair)