Engel Street
Engel Street, corner of Carolina Street
This small street was named in honor of Joe Engel in 2016. Engel was born outside of Warsaw, Poland, in 1927, and endured horrendous suffering under the Nazis in ghettos and concentration camps; then, surviving an enforced death march from Auschwitz, he escaped by leaping from the cattle car of a train in the dark of night. Having lost most of his family, Engel moved to Charleston in 1948 and eventually opened a dry cleaning business on King Street.
An articulate and beloved speaker on the horrors of the Shoah and the need for human empathy and understanding, Engel is the subject of the documentary To Auschwitz and Back and was a driving force behind the creation of the city’s Holocaust Memorial.
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Joe Engel Street, 2020
Joe Engel Street, 2020
Photo by Jack Alterman
Plaque honoring Holocaust survivor Joe Engel
Plaque honoring Holocaust survivor Joe Engel
At the corner of Joe Engel and Carolina streets. Photo by Jack Alterman, 2020.
Engel family, Zakroczym, Poland, 1938.
Engel family, Zakroczym, Poland, 1938.
Joe is at the front left.
Hapoel soccer team, 1946
Hapoel soccer team, 1946
DP (displaced persons) camp, Zeilsheim, Germany. Joe is kneeling, front row, 3rd from left.
Joe Engel with Mercedes, 1946