Holocaust memorial to be built in Big Ugly, West Virginia

Jan 30 (AP) - In an effort to increase tourism, attract Federal money and possible grants from Jewish groups, the town of Big Ugly, West Virginia has decided to erect a Holocaust memorial in honor of the six million Jews that died under the reign of the Nazis in World War II. "It's good economic sense. We saw that towns that put these things up had a better chance of getting money coming their way," said Bob Coberly, unofficial town leader of this unincorporated area in Lincoln County known for coal-mining, "of course, what happened to this people was just awful too. Terrible." Big Ugly has no history of Jewish settlement, but that's not what matters to Coberly. "Big Ugly needs some economic revitalization. We thought of a skating rink or a maybe a new theater. Those don't attract the kind of outside attention that a Holocaust memorial does. We're hoping to get some funding from Israel and Germany out of this", continues Coberly. But the memorial Coberly plans for Big Ugly will be different. He wants to inscribe the memorial with six million names at five dollars a name. "We could get sponsors. Churches and synagogues could donate money to memorialize the six million victims", explains Coberly, "This way, we could maybe get to build the new medical center that we need." Work on the memorial design is still in the planning stages. Coberly says they're working with Yad Vashem in Israel to collect all six million names.