CofC Podcast: How Student Research Revived a Holocaust Story
On this episode of the "Speaking of ... College of Charleston," we talk to Leah Davenport '25, Chad Gibbs and Scott Hellman '96 about the WWII letters that brought them all to Germany last spring.
Above (l–r): Chad Gibbs, Scott Hellman ’96, Leah Davenport ’25 and Natalie Peyton ‘24 (Photo by Pablo Castagnola/Anzenberger Agency)
What began as a stack of forgotten letters in a college archive became a transatlantic journey of remembrance, culminating in a powerful tribute to the Landsmann family, Holocaust victims nearly erased by history. In this episode of Speaking of … College of Charleston, we follow the story of how student research, archival discovery and community collaboration led to the placement of Stolpersteine, brass memorial stones installed in front of the family’s last known residence in Berlin.
Eighty-three years after Chaim and Molly Landsmann were murdered in Auschwitz, artist Gunter Demnig crafted the Stolpersteine that Leah Davenport ’25 applied to have placed in front of the residence.
RELATED: Read the full story in the summer 2025 issue of College of Charleston Magazine.
Last March, Davenport and Gibbs attended the Stolpersteine installation ceremony, along with Davenport’s faculty mentor Chad Gibbs, assistant professor of Jewish studies and director of the Zucker/Goldberg Center for Holocaust Studies; Natalie Peyton ’24, who had helped Davenport share the Landsmanns’ story; and relatives of the Landsmann family – R. Scott Hellman ’96 and his parents, Max and Ann Hellman.
This powerful act of remembrance was made possible when Davenport uncovered the World War II-era letters in the College of Charleston’s Jewish Heritage Collection, sparking a global memorial project that hasn’t ended yet.
“We’ve got a lot we’re doing with these letters,” says Gibbs, “and we have high hopes … that they will be pretty great for education and classrooms locally and far beyond our state borders.”
In this episode, we discuss how this project is shaping Holocaust education in high schools across the U.S.; the significance of Stolpersteine and the legacy of artist Gunter Demnig; and the impact of grassroots fundraising, including Davenport’s homemade hamantaschen cookies.
This episode is a poignant testament to how honoring the past can shape our present and inspire future generations.
Featured on This Episode:
Leah Davenport ’25 is a research assistant at the College’s Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture. As an undergraduate, she majored in Jewish studies and women’s and gender studies. She joined the Pearlstine/Lipov research team in 2022 after her studies sparked an interest in Jewish communities of the South, specifically in the Lowcountry, of which she is a native.
Davenport was instrumental in finishing research on synagogues across South Carolina. In addition to her work with the Pearlstine/Lipov Center, Davenport was the peer facilitator for both Jewish Studies First-Year Experience seminars in fall 2024. She is currently planning to go on graduate school, where she hopes to earn a master of social work with a certificate specializing in hospital social work.
Chad Gibbs joined the College of Charleston as assistant professor of Jewish studies and director of the Zucker/Goldberg Center in fall 2021. He teaches the history of the Holocaust, antisemitism, comparative genocide and related topics. His research interests include Jewish resistance to the Holocaust, gender studies, memory and memorialization and oral history.
In his current project, Gibbs uses spatial and social network analyses to expand our understanding of resistance and survival at the Nazi extermination camp Treblinka. Those interested in his work should visit his professional website here. He attained a doctorate in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s degree in history from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Wyoming. Before entering academic life, Gibbs served in the U.S. Army, including deployment to Iraq.
R. Scott Hellman ’96 graduated from the College with a bachelor’s degree in history and received an MBA from the University of Miami in 2001. Hellman owns and operates a service-driven insurance brokerage firm specializing in corporate benefits, as well as, life, health, long-term care and disability income for individuals.
Hellman is the current chair of the Yaschik Arnold Jewish Studies Program Community Advisory Board; serves as vice president of the Hebrew Benevolent Society, the oldest Jewish Charitable Society in the United States; and is on Hollings Cancer Center Advisory Board.
Resources From This Episode:
- The Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina published Leah Davenport’s article, “Crying Out for Help: Letters from the Minnie Tewel Baum Papers, 1938–1941,” in the spring 2023 issue of its magazine.
- The H.E.A.R. Their Stories: Holocaust History and Memory podcast featured Leah Davenport on an episode titled, “Malie Landsman’s Letters,” on Jan. 15, 2024.
