Charleston Holocaust Memorial
Charleston’s memorial to the destruction of the Jewish people of Europe, and to the heroic few who made it out, is a testament to the impact Jews have made locally and to the drive and dedication of Holocaust survivors who settled in South Carolina after World War II. In 1994, a group spearheaded by survivors Joe Engel, Pincus Kolender, Charles Markowitz, and Sam Greene began discussing the idea of creating a memorial. Key players included attorney David Popowski, son of Holocaust survivors, Jennifer Phillips, Jeffrey Rosenblum, and Anita Zucker, a daughter of survivors. Architect Jonathan Levi of Boston was selected to design the memorial and Design Works of Charleston to plan the landscaping.
In 1997, builders broke ground along the southern perimeter of Marion Square. Two years later, on June 6, 1999, the memorial was dedicated at a ceremony with 1,500 people in attendance. The irony of its location next to a towering pedestal holding aloft 19th-century statesman John C. Calhoun, a staunch supporter of slavery and white supremacy, has not gone unremarked. Neither has the absence of a monument to the enslaved people whose wealth-generating labor built the city. The year 2020, however, saw some resolution to these ironies: the statue of Calhoun was removed in June by unanimous vote of Charleston’s City Council, and the very next month, the International African American Museum under construction adjacent to Gadsden’s Wharf witnessed a “topping out” ceremony with the placement of the structure’s steel beam.
Holocaust Resources
The Charleston Jewish Federation's REMEMBER Program
The REMEMBER Program for Holocaust Education and Genocide Awareness shares the lessons from the Holocaust to build community amongst all races, faiths, and ethnicities, and inspires citizens to take a stand against all forms of hate.For more information and educational resources, click here.
The Holocaust Memorial Quilt at Charleston County Public Library
An adventure into Holocaust history by a group of eighth grade Social Studies and Language Arts students at Gregg Middle School turned into a commemorative quilt. The finished product, a 94- by 79-inch quilt, is now in the collection of the Charleston County Public Library as part of the Jerry and Anita Zucker Holocaust Collection. This website presents information found during the process of creating the Holocaust Survivors' Quilt. For more information, visit their site here.
South Carolina Council on the Holocaust
The South Carolina Council on the Holocaust provides educational programs about the systematic genocide of six million Jews and others in the Holocaust to help prevent such atrocities from happening again. Our work seeks to honor the survivors of the Holocaust and the camp liberators who call South Carolina home. For the stories of local South Carolina Holocaust Survivors, click here.
Charleston Holocaust Speakers' Bureau
CJF’s REMEMBER Program has survivors, children of survivors, and grandchildren of survivors who can share their family testimony with your group. We have speakers for students in grade 5-adult groups. Reach out today and we can help get you scheduled. For more information, click here.
The Daffodil Project
The Daffodil Project aspires to build a worldwide Living Holocaust Memorial by planting 1.5 million Daffodils in memory of the children who perished in the Holocaust and in support for children suffering in humanitarian crises in the world today. For more information, click here.
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum
A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Federal support guarantees the Museum’s permanent place on the National Mall, and its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by generous donors. For more information and educational resources, click here.
Mapping Jewish Charleston
Though Charleston’s Jewish history, dating back to the late 17th century, is becoming better known to academics, most people are unaware of the basic facts. How many know, for example, that 200 years ago Charleston boasted the largest Jewish population on the North American continent, and that Carolina claims many firsts in Jewish history—the first Jew elected to public office in the western world, the first Jewish patriot to die in the American Revolution, the first dissidents to introduce Reform Judaism to the United States? How these milestones were reached is a compelling story in itself.
Jews have lived side-by-side with other Charlestonians throughout the city’s history, and since the city itself grew and changed over the years, we cannot rely on a single map or web page to tell the panoramic story. We invite you explore the Jewish presence in Charleston over the centuries through images and texts from our archives, plotted on historical maps that document the shifting geographical distribution of Jews and Jewish institutions across the urban landscape. For more on this project, click here.
The Zucker/Goldberg Center for Holocaust Studies at the College of Charleston
The Zucker/Goldberg Center for Holocaust Studies is dedicated to the provision of learning opportunities for students at the College of Charleston, our community members in the South Carolina Lowcountry, and to interested individuals worldwide through our virtual resources. The activities and initiatives of the Center are motivated by a belief that knowledge of Holocaust history and human rights are pivotally important aspects of “education for citizenship” in the world of today. For more information and educational resources, click here.
