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CAMPUS NEWS
Friday, January 30, 1998
Holocaust scholar visits campus
by Shelvia Dancy
, Editor-in-Chief
The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words.
No one knows that better than Stephen Smith.
Smith was only 14 when he visited Israel’s Holocaust Memorial,
Yad Vashem, but a photograph he saw changed his life forever.
"I remember a picture," said Smith, "It was a picture of a mother
holding a three- or four-month-old baby, and standing about four of
five feet away from her was a soldier with a gun.
"Judging from the posture of the woman, he had just shot her. Her
knees were buckling underneath her. I saw that image and I thought if
I am true to myself I cannot look at this image which was taken just
taken 40 ears ago on the European continent, and then just go on
living my life as if it didn’t matter. I believe it does matter."
Spurred by the memory of the photograph years ago. Smith went
on to convert a family farmhouse into the site of what is now
Europe's first (and, so far, only) Holocaust memorial. The memorial,
which opened two-and-a-half years ago, is named Beth Shalom.
"Beth Shalom means in Hebrew 'house of peace.' We decided to
call it the 'house of peace' for two reasons: one, to create a place of
peace in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, but, secondly, to
create a place in which we hope to work towards the creation of
greater peace within our world."
Smith is director and chief lecturer at Beth Shalom, which sees as
many as 200 visitors a week. The soft-spoken 30-year-old, who
helped finance the creation of Beth Shalom through selling miniature
jC^eSi,^came to speak to students at North Carolina Central University i^i^hen Smith,
NCCU was one of three sites in the Triangle Smith visited during Wilson s history class during a visit at NCCU.
his week-long lecture tour of North Carolina.
"I realize that for the majority of students at NCCU, this will not
be a topic that is necessarily close to home, if that’s the way to put
it," said Smith. "But I think it's vitally important for those of outside an experience to
examine it and learn from it.
"One cannot teach what happened to the Jews in Europe some 60 years ago
without addressing the kind of conflicts that Native Americans and African
Americans have been in through this territory," he said. "It's a part of the story of the
United States."
Smith said Beth Shalom is more than a memorial to the victims and survivors of
the Holocaust, the center also is a place of education.
"When we set out to create Beth Shalom we knew we wanted it to be a memorial,
but we felt simply creating a memorial as in a monument was not what we wanted to
do," said Smith, "because monuments can start to mean less and less as time goes by
because fewer and fewer people understand what the sculpture or the stone means.
"So we felt our memorial should be a site with memorial significance," he
continued, "but the activities that takes place within that memorial should be
educational, so we decided to create a permanent exhibit detailing the history of the
Holocaust-dates, facts, places, people and so on. But we wanted to use that as a basis
for groups to explore the issues which come out of that history."
Thousands of children have trekked to Beth Shalom since it opened. Smith said
school-organized trips comprise 60 percent of the memorial's visitors. But, said
Smith, Beth Shalom is not a museum in the traditional sense.
“Beth Shalom is not set up like a museum where people come through in large
numbers," said Smith. "Everyone comes in pre-organized groups and they will spend
up to a whole day at the center, no less than half a day. Their visit is structured and
they have opportunities not only to see the exhibition, but to meet survivors of the
holocaust and talk to them."
Smith said survivors of the Holocaust find in Beth Shalom a place to heal and
remember loved ones,but they also find a place to teach others about their own
experiences.
Staff photo by Paul Phipps
"The survivors that come find Beth Shalom a very important place of memorial
because for them they have no places where they can go to remember their families,
their friends, their loved ones," said Smith. "But also, they actively engage
themselves in working at Beth Shalom. We have a substantial team of survivors who
go to schools and speak with children, go to colleges and speak with college students,
and also work at Beth Shalom on a daily basis giving talks and leading discussions
and sharing their experiences.
"They're providing a very important personal insight into a period of history many
of us find difficult to understand; they somehow bring us closer to it through their
own personal stories," he added.
Smith said the fact that Beth Shalom is Europe's first Holocaust memorial shows
that perhaps the country is coming to terms with its history.
"I think perhaps there was an element of guilt," he said, "knowing we had been
very close to all this and yet had not really suffered it. I think there was a slight
aversion to have to deal with that, and it has taken another generation to actually
confront it.
"Somehow those who were there did not feel quite able to do that."
Smith said Beth Shalom is an important symbol for Jews and Gentiles alike.
"For Jews, Beth Shalom is a symbol of goodwill, that people outside the jewish
community have taken the time and trouble to create it," he said. "I think for the
survivors of the Holocaust, it is a place of memorial. For non-Jews, I think Beth
Shalom is a place of education, but also a place of personal challenge."
Smith said that though the Holocaust took place decades ago, people must be wary
against allowing it to happen again.
"One cannot ignore the fact that we live in a world of intolerance, genocide, and so
forth," said Smith, "and 1 don't think you can simply look back at the past and say
'that was a bad period of history and it was worse than any before or after it.'
"Of course, the Holocaust was a uniquely terrible period of history, but the
circumstances that created it still exist."
PROFESSOR
Continued from page 1
Williams told the deputies
that he had been searching for
an item on the floor of his car,
and he informed the officers
there was a gun in the car, the
newspaper reported.
Deputies ordered Williams
to leave the car, and after
searching the vehicle they
found a loaded 9 mm. pistol
under a towel on the floor of
the passenger side.
The News & Observer also
reported a plastic bag and a
straw Williams dropped after
stepping from the car tested
positive for traces of cocaine.
In an interview with The
News & Observer, Williams'
attorney, Tony Axam, said it
has not been determined
whether the cocaine belonged
to Williams.
Axam also said the amount
of cocaine found on the
dropped items has not been
determined.
Robert E. Lawson, NCCU's
public relations photographer
urged people to hold judgment
until all the facts of the case are
known.
"It's only hearsay until you
get the facts," Lawson said.
"The last word on anything in
this university, hiring or firing,
comes from the chancellor."
At press time, Percy Luney,
dean of NCCU's School of
Law, was out of the country
and could not be reached for
comment.
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