Prisoners of War in the United States with a focus on South Carolina

This presentation begins with how the first German POWs were brought to the US, what they experienced when they first arrived and how the US Army housed and fed them and gave them jobs that provided crucial labor for the nation’s crops and timber in a labor-starved war economy.

The Pacific Island Campaigns from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima

Starting with the extent of Japan’s invasion of the South Pacific in 1941-42, this presentation will review the Allied strategies of the island campaigns and focus on two or three of the key islands that were taken. (This presentation can be refocused to look at just a single island campaign, if the audience requests, such … Read more

Normandy, D-Day June 6, 1944

In this presentation, Fritz Hamer examines the background to the invasion, the training of the troops to carry it out, and the sacrifices that were made for the landing to succeed. Part of the presentation will look at the equipment and vehicles used in the invasion, the combined forces (Army, Naval and Air forces) coordinated … Read more

World War II and the South Carolina Home Front

This presentation reviews the conditions of South Carolina prior to Pearl Harbor and how the war brought change to society. Topics that will be discussed include rationing, population increase, housing problems, volunteers, and enemy prisoners of war. It will conclude by considering how the war changed society for the future, politically, racially, and economically.

The Tuskegee Airmen at Walterboro Army Air Field

Discover the extraordinary story of the 500+ Tuskegee Airman who trained at South Carolina’s Walterboro Army Air Field during WWII and the determined battle they fought against racial prejudice on home soil! This presentation focuses on the history of Tuskegee training in South Carolina and its connection to the larger struggle for Civil Rights in … Read more

Genocide

In simple terms, genocide is the mass killing of a specific group because of who they are or because of who the killers believe they are.  In its terrible lived realities and its legal definition, genocide is so much more.  As a Holocaust historian, Dr. Gibbs speaks about the origins of the term genocide in … Read more

World War II in Europe

Despite increasing distance in time and the passing of last witnesses and veterans, World War II still defines how Americans see themselves, how they view their own military, and how they think of their role in the world.  The war in Europe, though only part of this worldwide inferno, is at the core of those … Read more

Nazism

What did the National Socialist German Workers Party, NSDAP, or Nazi Party actually believe?  What was the role of Adolf Hitler in shaping those views, and how did he and others at the top shape and use those ideas to lead Germany to total war and genocide?  As white nationalist and white supremacist groups continue … Read more

Jewish Resistance

For all too long, focus on Holocaust history excluded real explorations of Jewish resistance to Nazi tyranny and mass murder.  The misunderstood reality is that Jews resisted Nazi actions at every turn.  From early legal challenges and protests when it seemed there was still a state to listen, to later escape, evasion, and armed uprisings, … Read more

The Holocaust

Nazi Germany murdered 6 million Jews and a total of 11 million people, counting all of its chosen so-called racial enemies, from 1933 to 1945.  The German state did this with its own armed forces, the help of collaborators, and the silence of bystanders.  How did the Nazi Party lead a nation to this devastation?  … Read more

Shoah: The Art of the Holocaust

One of the most compelling testimonies to the horrors of the holocaust are the more than 30,000 surviving works created by artists while imprisoned in ghettos and concentration camps during the years of the Nazi Third Reich.  Many of these artists perished, others survived.  The body of work they created is extraordinary in its quality … Read more

South Carolina Dances with Isabel Whaley Sloan

Isabel Whaley Sloan started teaching ballroom dancing and social etiquette in Columbia when she was 17 years old in 1914. For three-quarters of a century, generations of children, including Gov. Henry McMaster, flocked to her classes. Sloan was also well-known for organizing dances and social events for thousands of servicemen who were stationed at Fort Jackson during World … Read more

The Holocaust – In the Beginning

The years 1933-1939 must be studied to enable an understanding of what came later. The Final Solution, implemented in late 1940-1941, was slowly realized through these early years. Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in January 1933 paved the way for the Nazis to continue on their path of human destruction, but the economic woes of Germany … Read more

The Holocaust Through Film

Film is a major component of society’s understanding of history. How have films about the Holocaust changed over time, and how have these films changed our understanding of the Holocaust? Films such as The Diary of Anne Frank in 1959 hardly touched on the Jewish catastrophe and, in fact, eliminated much that was Jewish in the film, … Read more

The Seeds of the Final Solution

The Final Solution evolved slowly in the eyes of the Nazis, but with the process of the Euthanasia program and later Operation Barbarossa, the industrialization of killing began. The Euthanasia program, in which Hitler murdered the mentally and physically incapacitated of Germany, created the possibility—and incorporated the people—who could and did kill the innocent with … Read more