UPDATE: This structure was torn down on Thursday, November 19, 2015.
Tucked away on an undeveloped lot along the Ashley River in Charleston sits a fireplace with an intact chimney. At first glance, the brick structure looks like the neglected remnant of a fashionable outdoor living space; in reality, the chimney is anything but a stylish component of modern landscaping. Upon closer inspection of the chimney, one can read a plaque at the top that says, “German Prisoners of War 19.1.1945.” The chimney and fireplace were built by German soldiers.
Another plaque adorns the back of the chimney. It lists four names, most likely belonging to German prisoners who stayed here. The fireplace is all that remains from this World War II prisoner of war camp that housed Germans at the end of the war. The camp that was established here was one of five such camps around Charleston. The camps were rudimentary, consisting mostly of tents and rustic buildings. Following the war, new neighborhoods such as this one were developed as soldiers returned and people started families. Local lore says that a former building in this camp was used for neighborhood gatherings for years after the war.
The chimney stands as a reminder of the 500 German soldiers who were imprisoned here on an 18-acre tract of land secured by barbed wire and guard towers, and the current property owners want it demolished or removed. The lot is currently owned by an old Charleston family of Jewish faith, and the family wants the structure gone not only to resolve a larger drainage issue with the lot but also because the concrete reminder of the atrocities committed by Nazis is too painful to bear.
In June of 2014 the chimney was officially denied protected historic status by Charleston’s Planning Commission. The family has yet to tear down the chimney, offering it to any one who believes it is worth preserving for historical reasons. Though many residents think the artifact should remain intact as a piece of history, so far no one has offered to relocate the chimney to another site.
As a youngster of about 10 or 11, I and another boy named Tuttle would bike across the Ashley River and turn right along the banks of the river. Shortly we arrived at a long stretch of vicious-looking barbed wire. We then visited the site several times to watch the German soldiers there who were, as we learned, PRISONERS OF WAR!!! One of them was named “Carl” and he seemed to be very young to be a soldier (and a prisoner as well). We two boys visited several times and Carl spoke English quite well! But one day we rode over again and the yard where they played volleyball was empty. The place was deserted. We later learned they were sent back to Deutschland.
It was a pretty dire place and chimney. I am very glad it is gone. It was the fireplace for the Officers’ Club, at which the German officers were allowed to congregate, have fun, drink beer, and sing.
Stark was a military hospital built to accommodate large limb amputees, “opened for business” in May 1941, one of 64 such facilities built around the country. My friends and I used to play in the woods where the Italian camp was (1965), and there were still the concrete slabs all in a row on which the tents were placed.
My older cousin told me there had been an Italian POW camp at North Rhett and Remount Road. She was about 12 and lived where the Food Lion is now. The camp was across Remount (where the ballfields are) and she would run across Remount to retrieve the soccer ball that flew over the fence … pretty often. Haha. Have not found any mention of that Italian POW camp. I know she would love it if I found something about it! Thank you!
There was a camp just south of Hollywood, SC, on what was old US Hwy 17. Later, it was used as a migrant labor camp.
Oh wow, how interesting! Do you know if anything remains of it today?
That was very interesting. I grew up in Ashley Forest and never heard of this camp.
It was very good. Do you have any information on a camp that was off Dorchester Road, I think it was in the Stark area.
Not yet, do you happen to have any further information? We could look into it.
I lived in a POW camp called Duke Camp in 1988-89 while I was an intern for Westvaco in SC. I fell in love there and just celebrated 30 years of marriage and kids. Now young men.
Wow, what a story! We would love to know more on this. How did you get to the POW camp, where was that, how many others were there, what was it like? So many questions!
My older brother Marion entered in to the camp under an American soldier disguise. The went in an ate and left undetected. His buddies were guards.
It’s history and we need to preserve all we can to remind people of our past.
I lived in Avondale and rode my bike over to the prison camp when I was 12 or 13 years old with a girl friend and we talked to the prisoners but we couldn’t speak German and they couldn’t speak English. My mother would have killed me if she knew that. I am 85 now.
It would certainly be a shame to demolish it. It's a part of history. Sure wish I could move it to my home on John's Island. Would love to have it.
I hope it’s not torn down…..I know if a bunker foxhole with a moat near here too unless it’s been demolished. Preserve what we can of history.