Special to the Chronicle

US Army veteran John Bouknight served in Europe after World War II.

After he passed away earlier this year, his grandsoh Daniel Bouknight of Chapin went through his grandfather's possessions and found a small cardboard box.

Written on it was “These ashes was taken from the crematory at Dachau, Germany, on 11 Feb.1945. Prisoners were burned in the oven that these ashes were taken from, small portions of bones remains.”

John Bouknight had never spoken of the box.

Daniel Bouknight had no idea how it came to his grandfather.

Bouknight knew he had to do the right thing, he told ColaDaily.com

He called Rabbi Hesh Epstein of Chabad of South Carolina to ask for advice.

The rabbi came to the Bouknights’ Chapin home to claim the remains.

After consulting with other rabbis, Epstein called Lilly Filler.

Filler lost her grandparents and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins in the Holocaust.

Her father was a prisoner at Dachau when the Allies liberated him in 1945.

In 2010, her family commissioned a Columbia Jewish cemetery monumentto honor their relatives.

The stone bears a yellow star, like the ones the Nazis forced Jews to wear.

Filler's family welcomed the idea of the ashes being buried at the stone.

"It will directly link these ashes from Dachau to Chapin to Columbia," Filler said.

"This is a stone about the Holocaust and those lost."

Sunday at Columbia’s Jewish cemetery, dozens of people gathered to mourn, ColaDaily.com reported.

They knew those lost were murdered by Nazis in Adolf Hitler's "final solution."

They gathered 75 years later to lay them to rest.

Many of those who gathered Sunday had relatives who disappeared during the Holocaust and are presumed to have been killed. Ttheir exact fates remain unknown.

The ashes interred in sacred ground in Columbia is to them not just historical,but personal.

"We don't know who you were, where you called home, who loved you or who you loved, but we know you were murdered because you were a Jew,” Rabbi Epstein said..

"Your existence stands for the inextinguishable voice of hope in human conversation.

"Because your ancestors refused to bow to tyrants, to worship false gods and to never stop dreaming of a better world under God's rule, your death was not in vain.

"You died in darkness, perhaps thinking you were witnessing the end of your people. You were not.

"We are your children. We share your dreams and we pass them to the next generation

"We have gathered here today to honor your memory along with the 6 million of your brothers and sisters…You are home."