Cherokee Resources – Selections from the Bill and Alice Hart Collection

This is the second in a series of articles highlighting materials in the Bill and Alice Hart Collection, which the Harts donated to UNC Asheville’s Special Collections. This article highlights works documenting the Cherokee Nation.

Bill and Alice Hart’s Collection of the history and culture of Western North Carolina includes extensive works on the Cherokees, who have lived in this part of the world longer than any other humans. The Cherokee trace their roots in Western North Carolina to approximately 8000 b.c.e., and controlled about 40,000 square miles of territory in Southern Appalachia prior to the arrival of Europeans. Understanding the relationship of humans to the natural world in Southern Appalachia requires an understanding of Cherokee history and culture, and it is in this context that Bill and Alice Hart built an extensive collection of materials on the Cherokee. 

The following is a selection of the Cherokee materials in the Hart Collection.

Early History of the Cherokees

Emmet Starr’s Early History of the Cherokees: Embracing Aboriginal Customs, Religion, Laws, Folk Lore, and Civilization, was published in 1917, and considered a landmark historical account of the Cherokee nation. Starr establishes his credentials in the book’s Preface: “I am a Cherokee, born in Going Snake District, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, on December 12, 1870.” Starr spent over 15 years researching this history, and the volume includes extensive use of primary sources. This first edition, self-published by Starr, is relatively rare. 

Cover of Early History of the Cherokees by Emmett Starr
Cover of Early History of the Cherokees by Emmett Starr

Land of the North Carolina Cherokees

Published in 1970, Fred B. Bauer’s Land of the North Carolina Cherokees is a concise (70 page) history of legal issues concerning the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and their struggles to maintain their constitution and land rights in the Qualla Boundary. Bauer was a former Vice Chief of the Eastern Band, and was an outspoken advocate for Cherokee rights to their land during the development of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Land of the North Carolina Cherokees
Cover of Land of the North Carolina Cherokees by Fred B. Bauer

 Formal Opening of the Chief John Ross House – offical program

John Ross served in leadership roles for the Cherokee Nation from 1819 to his death in 1866. Ross was President of the Ntional Committee of the Cherokee Nation from 1819 to 1827, the year that the Cherokee Nation adopted its Constitution. In 1827 he was Assitant Principal Chief, and in 1828 was elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. He was relected as Principal Chief and held the position until his death in 1866.

The John Ross House in Rossville, Georgia, was built in 1797 by John Ross’s grandfather John McDonald. The house was restored 1963, and this program documents the Formal Opening ceremonies, which included a stick-ball game, archery, crafts, and dancing.

Formal Opening of the Chief John Ross House, May 29, 1963.
Formal Opening of the Chief John Ross House, May 29, 1963.

33rd Annual Cherokee Indian Fair program, October 1950

The Cherokee Indian Fair provided members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians an opportunity to exhibit “the products of their fields, forests, and farms, their cook stoves and preserving kettles, their needles and looms, all the best of their wood craft, metal work, and pottery; in fact any products of their minds and hands in which the can take pride.” The program is illed with photographs and details about the wide range of items being exhibited and sold, including fruits, vegetables, canned goods, baked goods, clothing, plants, flowers, and crafts. 

Program - 33rd Annual Cherokee Indian Fair, 1950
Program – 33rd Annual Cherokee Indian Fair, 1950

Cherokee Fair & Festival: A History thru 1978

This 1978 pamphlet edited by Mary Ulmore Chiltoskey provides more depth and historical information about the Cherokee Indian Fair. It cites 18th century European descriptions of Cherokee harvest festivals in such historical narratives as John Lawson’s History of Carolina and William Bartram’s Travels of William Bartram, then adds contemporary Cherokee accounts of the Fair’s growth and development. 

Cherokee Fair & Festival: A History thru 1978
Cherokee Fair & Festival: A History thru 1978

The Hart Collection includes documents and resources about Cherokee law, as well as nineteenth century congressional papers documenting Cherokee attempts to have treaty promises fulfilled. These include the Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Nation, Published by Authority of the National Council, 1875, and Congressional documents such as the US House of Representatives Bureau of Indian Affairs report “Cherokee Indians in North Carolina” from 1848, the U.S. Senate document “complaints of treaty violations by US, delivered by Cherokee delegation of Will P. Ross, W.S. Coodey, and John Drew, March 15, 1849,” and the U.S. Senate document “Committee on Indian Affairs, report on accounting balance owed the Cherokee nation by the US according to 1846 treaty terms.”

A small but representative sample of other Cherokee resources in the Hart Collection includes Art of the Cherokee : Prehistory to the Present by Susan C. Power, Cherokees of the Old South: a People in Transition by Henry Thompson Malone, The Shadow of Sequoyah:  Social Documents of the Cherokees, 1862-1964, Cherokee Legends and the Trail of Tears from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Cherokee Cavaliers: Forty Years of Cherokee History as told in the Correspondence of the Ridge-Watie-Boudinot family, as well as numerous issues of the Journal of Cherokee Studies and North Carolina Archaeology.

One of the most important works in the collection is a first edition of The Cherokee Physician, Or Indian Guide to Health, as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Doctor. Originally published in Asheville in 1849, this book merits its own blog post. We will feature a special guest discussing The Cherokee Physician in a future blog post. Stay tuned! 

For more information about these materials, please watch this video of Bill Hart discussing the Cherokee resources in the Hart Collection. This was recorded in the Hart’s private library prior to transferring the collection to UNC Asheville, but we have retained the original order that the Harts used to organize their collection.

The Bill and Alice Hart Collection is open to all, and we encourage you to contact Special Collections to make an appointment to spend time with this marvelous collection. Please contact us at speccoll@unca.edu to make an appointment. We look forward to seeing you soon!

– Gene Hyde and Ashley Whittle

 

Hiking in the Smokies – Selections from the Bill and Alice Hart Collection

This is the first in a series of articles highlighting materials in the Bill and Alice Hart Collection, which the Harts recently donated to UNC Asheville’s Special Collections. This article highlights works related to one of Bill and Alice Hart’s favorite pastimes: hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains.

In the introduction to his 2009 book, 3000 Miles in the Great Smokies, Bill Hart described the importance of boyhood family camping trips in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Initially introduced to day hikes by his father, he became an avid hiking and camping enthusiast.  The more he hiked in the Smokies, the more curious he became about not only the actual trails he traversed, but also the history and culture of the people who had lived there:

As the frequency of my walks in the Smokies increased, each visit began to take on a different meaning. I could not pass flowers and shrubs without having questions about their identities. Remains of old homesteads, outlines of old fields and rustic cemeteries led to wonderment about patterns of settlement and early life in the Smokies. Old roads, faint paths and abandoned rail grades caused me to wonder where they led and what secrets they held. Mountain peaks and place names bespoke of people and events in the past. In an effort to gain a layman’s knowledge about the Smokies, I began to read about the history, flora, fauna, lore, and music of the area and satisfied some of my curiosity.

The cover of Bill Hart's 3000 Miles in the Great Smokies.
The cover of Bill Hart’s 3000 Miles in the Great Smokies.

Indeed, Bill’s effort to gain a “layman’s knowledge” of the Smokies was a factor in he and his wife Alice curating and creating a massive personal library for over 50 years, one that scholars sought out and that is now at UNC Asheville. This post, the first of many, will focus on the Smokies hiking content in the Bill and Alice Hart Collection, and further posts will continue to highlight the wide variety of materials in this extensive collection.

Smoky Mountains Hiking Club Handbooks

The Smoky Mountains Hiking Club (SMHC) was founded in 1924, two years before the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. By 1926 the SMHC began to publish an annual Handbook which listed group hikes and other SMHC events during each year. The Bill and Alice Hart Collection contains nearly ninety copies of the SMHC Handbook dating from the first one in 1926 through 2018 – a nearly complete set with just a few years missing.

Each volume of the SMHC Handbook is a guide to SMHC hikes and events. Included are a schedule of hikes throughout the year with descriptions of each hike and the group leader (or leaders) for each hike, other scheduled club events such as fish fries, educational lectures, short essays by club members about hiking and the outdoors, general guides and insights into various places in the Park, photographs, maps, and information about the club’s members and leaders. The articles and hike descriptions in the handbooks portray a strong sense of camaraderie among the members, a shared sense of stewardship about the trails and the park, and often a wry sense of humor, as seen in the captions for these photos of a bear and a boomer (a red squirrel) from the 1939 Handbook:

A page from the 1939 Handbook of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club.
A page from the 1939 Handbook of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club.

The Smoky Mountains Hiking Club remained active and continued to lead hikes and host group activities even during World War II. This entry from the 20th Anniversary edition of the Handbook in 1944 discusses not only wartime rationing but also shows a regular feature in each issue of the Handbook – the club’s Code of Ethics:

From the 1944 20th anniversary issue of the Handbook of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club addressing war time rationing.
From the 1944 20th anniversary issue of the Handbook of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club addressing war time rationing.

Guide to the Great Smokies 

Several of the many gems in the Hart Collection are the 1933 Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the 1935 revised edition of the Guide, both written by George McCoy and George Masa. And while the 1935 edition no longer lists Masa as a co-author, his photographs still grace the pages of this small and highly informative volume.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park guide from 1933. Photographer George Masa was a co-author and contributed photographs.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park guide from 1933. Photographer George Masa was a co-author and contributed photographs.
Welcome page from the 1933 Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Welcome page from the 1933 Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Note the reference to George Masa in the text.

Hiking Trails of the Smokies

Due to his considerable experience hiking the Smokies, Bill  Hart was asked to contribute some trail descriptions to Hiking Trails of the Smokies,  published in 1994 by the Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association. Bill described about 60 miles of trails in the book, and this link goes to his description of the Beech Gap Trail  (please click on link to open the narrative).  In addition to describing the hike itself, Bill’s narrative places the trail in historical context. He describes Ira McGee’s mill and the railroad lines that were extended into this section of the Smokies in 1915 for logging, and also  notes that the Civilian Conservation Corps had a camp in 1934-41 where Round Bottom Creek flows into Straight Fork, near the Beech Gap Trail. The hike is not merely a hike on a lovely Smokies trail, it’s also a trip through the past.

Cover of Hiking Trails of the Smokies. Bill Hart was part of a group of hikers who wrote trail descriptions for this volume.

To watch a video of Bill Hart discussing these works and other materials from the Great Smokies part of the Hart Collection, please click on this link. This was recorded in the Hart’s private library prior to transferring the collection to UNC Asheville, but we have retained the original order that the Harts used to organize their collection.

The Bill and Alice Hart Collection is open to all, and we encourage you to contact Special Collections to make an appointment to spend time with this marvelous collection. Please contact us at speccoll@unca.edu to make an appointment. We look forward to seeing you soon!

– Gene Hyde and Ashley Whittle

A cheer for our student workers!

Special Collections was fortunate to have three excellent students working with us this semester. History Department interns Elijah Reddick and Chandler Collins worked with us this semester, and History major Michael Dennis also worked with us. These three were remarkable, mastering the skills necessary to process challenging collections.

Chandler Collins, Elijah Reddick, and Michael Dennis (left to right) showing off favorite items from the collections they worked with.
Chandler Collins, Elijah Reddick, and Michael Dennis (left to right) showing off favorite items from the collections they worked with.

We asked Michael, Elijah, and Chandler to pose for this photo with a favorite item from the collection they worked on this semester. Chandler worked on a large collection from the Rotary Club of Asheville, which included numerous banners, flags, and other materials collected from Rotary Clubs around the world. He selected a boomerang from an Australian Rotary Club.

Elijah processed the David Cohen Cartoon Collection, and he selected a cartoon with a visual pun, a drawing of a submarine with the caption “Sub Conscious.” Elijah wrote about his experiences as an intern in this blog.

Michael is working on the Margaret Shook Photograph Collection. Shook was a professional photographer in Asheville, and her collection contains a number of series of photos and slides on different topics, as well as some creative projects. Michael selected a photo showing the effects of Asheville’s urban renewal.

Congratulations to these excellent students, and best of luck to them! Elijah will be graduating in December while Michael and Chandler are completing their History degrees. Michael will be joining us again next semester when he will continue working on the Margaret Shook Photograph Collection. The finding aids for the Rotary Club of Asheville Collection and the David Cohen Cartoon Collection will be available early in 2023.

Thanks to all of you!

-Gene Hyde and Ashley Whittle

The David Cohen Cartoon Collection

(This post is by Elijah Reddick, a History intern who worked in Special Collections in the Fall 2022 semester. ) 

By Elijah Reddick

The Collection Itself

The majority of my internship in UNC Asheville’s Special Collections was spent working on the David Cohen Cartoon Collection which was donated to the archive in November 2021. I organized and described David Cohen’s collection of hand drawn cartoons on an item level description within a finding aid. This meant looking at each cartoon individually and describing it based on personal judgment and trying to convey what the cartoon is trying to display visually and contextually. The top priority while describing the collection was to keep in mind the audience for the finding aid and to remember that David Cohen himself still wanted to access his collection after the initial donation. This meant not only creating a finding aid more personal to David for ease of use but also creating a finding aid that would help guide future researchers in their own personal projects.

The Cohen Collection consists of sixteen boxes so far with a majority of the boxes holding folders up to fifteen folders with ten cartoons in each, with exception to a few folders which have more than ten cartoons in them due to us wanting to keep certain time periods in sequential order. The cartoons are all hand drawn on a variety of materials including cardstock and regular sheet paper, the cartoons are also largely in black and white with use of a marker and pencil. Some cartoons display work with color and small uses of inlay materials to display patterns on objects or backgrounds.

David Cohen: A Drawn-Out Mind

David Cohen is an Asheville based artist/musician and resident of over forty years. He primarily draws editorial cartoons and commissioned cartoons for various outlets and companies. His cartoon work spans various subjects ranging from local issues based in Asheville to more national political events and even to one off, word play oriented jokes. His work has been recognized by media outlets such as USA today and his work is very well known in the local Asheville area. David Cohen has been drawing cartoons for the Asheville Citizen-Times Newspaper for seventeen years and also contributed cartoons the Greenline Express a predecessor to the Mountain Xpress.

I had the amazing opportunity to interview with David Cohen during my internship and asked him questions about what motivates him to draw cartoons and specifically about why he chooses the subjects he does. He told me so many things about Asheville, and as someone relatively new to the area is wildly intriguing, such as the Bele Chere festival and its hectic but also tourist-attracting atmosphere David parodies in a number of his cartoons. We also talked about the presence of religion in his cartoons and how often David pokes fun or finds pleasure in investigating the more controversial sides of certain faiths. David draws cartoons about a number of sensitive topics but he does so in a way that draws attention to the matter and provides enough context within the cartoon that it provides the viewer with a curiosity to go and investigate that topic more.

David Cohen also conducted a TED Talk in Asheville some years ago about his career. Link to Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6avE5i5QIgA

National Politics and The Meaning of an Editorial Cartoonist

David Cohen’s cartoons touch on many topics both national and local in nature. There are even times where David goes into international news, whether that be talking about a foreign regime or national disaster, David Cohen has incredibly varied subject matter. National politics and specifically an interest in our three branches of government in the U.S. is where we see a vast majority of the cartoons in our collection residing, especially in the early to mid 2000’s. The political cartoons touch on gay marriage, religion in government, and the short comings of specific politicians. Since David Cohen is an editorial cartoonist these depictions of politicians and other public figures are done so in a caricatured manner with exaggerated features.

Cartoon showing Barack Obama and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Cartoon showing Barack Obama and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Cartoon showing masters or gods of major religions playing golf
Cartoon showing masters or gods of major religions playing golf

If you look earlier in our collection of David Cohen cartoons you will see a leaning away from such political cartoons and start to see a less politicized humor being created. Many of the cartoons pre-2000 are one off jokes or secular in topic, with many of the cartoons involving wordplay, historical references, or puns.

Cartoon showing a man walk into a bar in a doorway
Cartoon showing a man walk into a bar in a doorway
Cartoon depicting John McCain and highlighting his perspective on the infamously known policy concerning the sexual orientation of U.S. service members known as “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”
Cartoon depicting John McCain and highlighting his perspective on the infamously known policy concerning the sexual orientation of U.S. service members known as “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”
Cartoon depicting Barack Obama and criticizing his ability to handle the middle east summit on his own and without exterior guidance.
Cartoon depicting Barack Obama and criticizing his ability to handle the middle east summit on his own and without exterior guidance.

David’s Contribution to Asheville Through His Work

Perhaps the most influential and impactful part of the David Cohen collection are his cartoons that depict events and stories told within the local area of Asheville, NC. David covers topics specific to Asheville or topics that public opinion highlights such as houselessness, tourism, changing demographics, and local politicians. David Cohen’s local cartoons provide a  local sphere of relatability and culture to long standing residents of Asheville, NC which is vital in a town that relies so much on exterior tourism and influence. David Cohen’s vast timespan of collected cartoons also archive and document Asheville’s local history in of itself, enabling a person who decides to look through the collection to see a timeline of important events, figures, and even public policies that have shaped Asheville into the city we see today.

Cartoon depicting two stereotypical groups of demographics seen within Asheville and how they interact with one another
Cartoon depicting two stereotypical groups of demographics seen within Asheville and how they interact with one another
Cartoon depicting a cop and a houseless man in Asheville, NC relating over the housing crisis
Cartoon depicting a cop and a houseless man in Asheville, NC relating over the housing crisis
Cartoon depicting former Asheville, NC mayor Terry Bellamy and her struggles with equal rights legislation within the city
Cartoon depicting former Asheville, NC mayor Terry Bellamy and her struggles with equal rights legislation within the city
Cartoon depicting former member of Asheville City Council Cecil Bothwell and a critique towards his political career
Cartoon depicting former member of Asheville City Council Cecil Bothwell and a critique towards his political career
Cartoon depicting a dissatisfied local dealing with tourist and photographers who often migrate to Asheville, NC for the natural scenery
Cartoon depicting a dissatisfied local dealing with tourist and photographers who often migrate to Asheville, NC for the natural scenery

What This Internship Has Meant to Me

My internship at UNCA Special Collections and the experience it has given me has grown so many of my professional skills while also changing how I think about archives. It has given me more than what I expected in terms of hands-on experience, collaborative efforts, and concepts around handling and describing a collection. It has provided me with challenges that confronted my writing skills, personal bias, and even morals when it came to what we put within a finding aid about the subject at hand; whether it be about word choice or censoring a topic for the potentially offensive nature of it. This is not to say that there was an active effort to censure the collection but it is to say that what you put in a finding aid and what you see in person can be different in order to maintain professionalism and a sense of academic sustainability within a setting such as Special Collections. This internship and specifically this collection taught me eventually to not describe the humor within a cartoon but to describe the significance of the cartoon, what does the cartoon give us in respect to its context, setting/environment, and even characters? Through David Cohen’s incredible storytelling skill and illustration along with the mentors I have been lucky to work with at the UNCA Special Collections Department I realized just how much individual local figures mean to a community like Asheville. Both in terms of creating and archiving works of historical value, it’s figures like these that maintain a culture of a place so multi-dimensional such as the one we reside in today.

Sources

All cartoons are from the David Cohen Collection, D.H Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville.

(Note: The finding aid for the David Cohen Cartoon Collection will be online in early 2023. )

 

Join us for “Tourism in Appalachia: A Public Presentation Highlighting Collections and Research on the Tourism Industry and Its Impact on the Appalachian Region”

Tourism in Appalachia: A Public Presentation Highlighting Collections and Research on the Tourism Industry and Its Impact on the Appalachian Region – April 27th 2022 1:30-3:00pm

Please join us and our colleagues at Appalachian State University and Western Carolina for the following presentation:

Appalachian State University, UNC Asheville, and Western Carolina University Libraries are sponsoring an online event to showcase recent digital projects from each institution on the theme of tourism in Appalachia on April 27th 2022 1:30-3:00pm. Keynote speaker, Dr. Andy Denson, author of Monuments to Absence: Cherokee Removal and the Contest over Southern Memory (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017) and Associate Professor of History at Western Carolina University, will discuss the roles played by Cherokee sites of memory and images of Native American history in the evolution of tourism cultures in Southern Appalachia. Representatives from each library will discuss the following collections:

  • Gene Hyde, Head  of Special Collections and University Archivist at UNC Asheville, will explore the legacy of early 20th century resort tourism featuring materials primarily from the Ora Rives Collection, the Frank Coxe Papers, the Fred Loring Seely Papers, and the E. W. Grove papers.
  • Appalachian State University’s Pam Mitchem, Coordinator of Digital Scholarship and Initiatives; Ashlea Green, Metadata Librarian; and Dea Rice, Digital Projects Librarian, will talk about their exhibit featuring the Kelly E. Bennett Papers , which document the establishment of and connection between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee Historical Association.
  • Liz Harper, Special and Digital Collections Librarian, will highlight three digital collections from Western Carolina University focusing on the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, scenic images from their Picturing Appalachia collection, and the collection Cherokee Traditions, which documents Cherokee craft and language traditions.

Click here to register.

Contact: Pam Mitchem, Coordinator of Digital Scholarship & Initiatives, Appalachian State University Libraries, (828) 262-7422, pricemtchemp@appstate.edu

This project is funded by the Martha and Nancy Lee Bivens University Library Fund for Excellence

Celebrating Asheville educator Lucy Saunders Herring

Lucy Herring, Teacher and Principal
Lucy Herring, Teacher and Principal

120 years ago this Saturday, Lucy Saunders (Herring) was born in Union, South Carolina, on October 24, 1900. A pioneering African American educator, she worked as a teacher, reading specialist, and as an educational and community leader from 1916 until 1968. Her work helped transform African American education in North Carolina, especially in Western North Carolina (Krause, p. 188). Her archival legacy includes the Lucy Herring Collection, her memoir Strangers No More: memoirs by Lucy S. Herring, and the Heritage of Black Highlanders Collection, all held in Special Collections at UNC Asheville. Transcriptions of oral histories with Lucy Herring have recently been added to the Special Collections website: July 26, 1977, August 2, 1977 (tape 1), and August 2, 1977 (tape 2)

Saunders’ family moved to Asheville for her brother’s health in 1914. Two years later, when she was 16, Saunders  was teaching at the Lower Swannanoa Colored School.  A one-room schoolhouse with unpainted walls, a pot-bellied stove, and homemade desks, Lower Swannanoa was one of twelve “colored” schools in Buncombe County at the time. Saunders’ supervisor was John Henry Michael, who was not only the principal of Hill Elementary School, but also the Jeanes Fund supervisor of “Colored Schools” for the county. It was these two factors – the mentorship of John Henry Michael and the Jeanes Fund – that would shape Saunders’ early career as an educator. 

Asheville State Summer School, Caning Chair Seats
Asheville State Summer School, Caning Chair Seats — J.H. Michael, Founder and Director, 1917-1938; Front Row: (left to right) Janet Kebe, Ethel Foster, Nettie Candler, Winifred Allen, Gertie Mance, Lucile Shepard, Back Row: J.H. Michael, Unidentified, Creola Bernette, Mamie Bell, Hattis Anderson, C.U. Reynolds, Blanche Graham, Unidentified, Unidentified, Hattie Love

Michael conducted the state-accredited Asheville Summer School for Negro Teachers which provided African American teachers with the opportunity to earn and upgrade their teaching certificates, as well as earn credit toward undergraduate college degrees. An experienced educator, Michael was impressed with Saunders’ classroom skills and in 1920 offered her a job teaching third and fifth grades at Hill Street Elementary School in Asheville. Saunders’ talents caught the notice of Annie Wealthy Holland, the North Carolina superintendent of Negro school, and in 1923 Saunders was appointed as a Jeanes Fund supervisor in Harnett County, in the central part of North Carolina. 

Asheville State Summer School, 1930
Asheville State Summer School, 1930 – J.H. Michael, Founder and Director. Conducted at the Hill Street Elementary School

The Anna T. Jeanes Foundation, also known as the Negro Rural School Fund, or Jeanes Fund, was established by a Pennsylvania Quaker specifically to help maintain and assist rural and country schools for “Southern Negroes.” Originally started with a donation to the Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes in 2005 to assist black schools, by 1909 there were 65 Jeanes supervisors working in 10 states.  

When Saunders arrived in Harnett County in 1924, her duties as a Jeanes supervisor were, broadly speaking, to improve education in the county’s black schools, which manifested itself in many ways. She visited all the black schools in the county on a regular basis, encouraged local teachers to teach such topics as sanitation, basic homemaking and light industrial skills. She also encouraged teachers to paint and whitewash houses, develop home and school gardens, as well as other tasks based on the Hampton/Tuskegee model of industrial education and homemaking (Krause, p. 198). 

Saunders thrived as a Jeanes supervisor in Harnett County. In the 1920s many black teachers had substandard or provisional teaching certificates. To address this Saunders instituted training programs and extension classes drawing on faculty from nearby Fayetteville State Teachers’ College. Her efforts were part of a larger effort in North Carolina in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1926, only 33% (or 1,917 teachers) of North Carolina’s black teachers had high school educations. By 1928-29 that had dropped to 20%, and a decade later it was down to just 175 teachers. Her role in Harnett County was, essentially, as a county supervisor to the African American schools, raising funds, supervising schools, recruiting and hiring teachers, organizing training, and helping teachers improve their classroom teaching, as well as other administrative tasks. 

Saunders also met Asa Herring while working in Harnett County, marrying him in 1925 and giving birth to their son, Asa Jr., in October 1926. Lucy Saunders Herring continued to work in Harnett County until 1935. By that time her marriage had failed, so she moved back to Asheville as a single mother, taking a job teaching English and mathematics at Stephens-Lee High School. Herring would continue working as a Jeanes supervisor in Buncombe County, taking a part-time position as Jeanes supervisor for the elementary schools.

Stephens-Lee High School
Stephens-Lee High School

For Herring, moving to Asheville meant leaving the flat North Carolina coastal plain of Harnett County and returning to the mountains. As she said in an oral history in 1977,  “I thought and still think from the standpoint of physical beauty, Asheville is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen…There is something about the mountains that is satisfying and soothing” (Herring, July 1977 oral history). 

By the time Herring arrived back in Asheville, the duties of Jeanes supervisors had expanded to also include improving “the quality of instruction,” to conduct meetings on reading and study, to guide field work and extension courses, to help implement standards, to encourage summer schools, libraries, and conferences, and to engage the community. As a Jeanes supervisor Herring became an active leader in Asheville, working with parent-teacher groups and community organizations and raising funds to buy additional books and other materials for schools. 

In 1941 Herring was named principal of Mountain Street Elementary School, and by the late 1940s she became the first African American on the Asheville school and supervisory staff to have an office in city hall. At this time she began graduate work at the University of Chicago, traveling there over the summer for three years. She worked with Dr. William Scott Gray, the leading expert on remedial reading who had developed the “Dick and Jane” reading. Remedial reading was one of Herring’s passions, and based on her work with Gray she developed her own reading programs for teachers, supervisors, librarians, and principals. She was seen as an expert on remedial reading in North Carolina, and was invited to teach summer sessions at the North Carolina College for Negroes (now NC Central University) in Durham. 

Letter inviting Lucy Herring to teach a Remedial Reading clinic at NC College for Negroes, 1944
Letter inviting Lucy Herring to teach a Remedial Reading clinic at NC College for Negroes, 1944. From the Lucy S. Herring Collection

In 1949, the state allowed Asheville to “employ one colored supervisor” in the school system, and Lucy Herring was appointed as the supervisor for the African American city schools in Asheville, a position she held until her retirement in 1964. Herring was also offered a similar position in Winston-Salem but chose to stay in Asheville. During this time she was also president of the North Carolina branch of the National Association of Jeanes Supervisors. She was gaining a national reputation as an effective reading educator and supervisor, and was offered a job at the Tuskegee Institute, which she declined. 

Letter from Asheville City Schools offering Lucy Herring a supervisor position in the city schools, July 1949.
Letter from Asheville City Schools offering Lucy Herring a supervisor position in the city schools, July 1949. From the Lucy S. Herring Collection
Job offer from Tuskegee Institute, March 1960. Lucy Herring did not accept the position, preferring to stay in Asheville and work with elementary school students.
Job offer from Tuskegee Institute, March 1960. Lucy Herring did not accept the position, preferring to stay in Asheville and work with elementary school students. From the Lucy S. Herring Collection

Asheville honored Herring in 1961 when the Asheville City Board of Education unanimously voted to name a new school after Herring – the Lucy S. Herring Elementary School, which operated from 1961-67 when it was then closed as part of court-ordered integration. 

From the Asheville Citizen-Times, March 18, 1962.
From the Asheville Citizen-Times, March 18, 1962. From the Lucy S. Herring Collection

Herring retired from the Asheville City Schools in 1964, having spent a career exclusively teaching in segregated schools. She remained extremely active in the community after retirement, serving on numerous boards and working to collect materials that document the Heritage of Black Highlanders in Western North Carolina. The materials she and others gathered constituted the Heritage of Black Highlanders Collection at UNC Asheville. 

In 1968, Herring moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to live with her son Asa’s family. Her son, Lieutenant Colonel Asa D. Herring, Jr. was a fighter pilot and wing officer in the Air Force, and served in Vietnam when Lucy Herring was living in Phoenix. He started his career training as a Tuskegee Airman in 1944, but World War II ended before his training was completed. He left the military in 1946, but reenlisted in 1949 after President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 ending racial segregation in the military. Asa Herring Jr. became a fighter pilot and officer and flew 350 combat missions in Vietnam. The Library of Congress has created an Asa D. Herring, Jr. Collection and oral history with Lt. Col. Herring as part of its Veterans History Project.

Asa D. Herring, United States Air Force
Asa D. Herring, United States Air Force

Lucy Herring published her memoir, Strangers No More: memoirs by Lucy S. Herring, in 1983.  She lived the rest of her life in Arizona, and passed away  in Phoenix in October, 1995, a few days before her 95th birthday. 

Sources:

Heritage of Black Highlanders Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804. Digitized by Digital NC. 

Herring, Lucy S. Strangers No More: memoirs by Lucy S. Herring. New York: Carlton Press, 1983.

Herring, Lucy S. Interviews with Louis Silveri. 1977. Transcripts. Southern Highlands Research Center Oral History Collection. D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Krause, Bonnie J.,“‘We Did Move Mountains!’ Lucy Saunders Herring, North Carolina Jeanes Supervisor and African American Educator, 1916-1968,” The North Carolina Historical Review 80, no.2 (April 2003): 188-212.

Lucy S. Herring Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

 

The Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection

While a portion of my time interning at UNCA’s Special Collections was spent transcribing the oral histories of Hilde Hoffman, Richard Braun, and John Rosenthal, I spent the majority of my internship processing the Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, a brand new collection to UNCA, from beginning to end. There’s plenty of technical jargon that I could use to describe everything that I did, but I don’t think many people (save for librarians, archivists, and maybe historians) would enjoy that. Let it suffice to say that I gained an intimate knowledge of every single document and picture in this collection.  As an aspiring archivist with a background in history, I was excited about this project from the very beginning. I was going to see things that no other patron had ever seen! I was going to make it possible for this collection to be viewed by the world! Thanks to my work, the world was going to have access to a previously untold part of Jewish and Holocaust history! What I wasn’t expecting, however, was the “story” behind my work that would leave me devastated, shocked, inspired, and in awe.

This is the last segment of my Remembering the Holocaust series, and it is very special to me. It was an unbelievable pleasure and honor to work with Sharon Fahrer and her new collection. Now, originally this was intended to be a physical exhibit, but that is no longer possible (courtesy of Covid-19), so I’ve decided to create a sort of digital exhibit of some of my favorite pieces from the collection instead. The individuals discussed below are members of the Majerowicz family that were affected by the Holocaust. However, the full collection includes information on Sharon’s father, Irving Cantor, as well as other materials relating to Sharon’s research into her family’s history. I hope you are as inspired by the Majerowiczes remarkable journey as I was.

Arthur Majerowicz

Arthur Majerowicz, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Arthur Majerowicz was a German Jew, draftsman, and Sharon’s grandfather. He married Marie, a German non-Jew, and had three children: Kurt, Irma, and Ruth. While much of Arthur’s experiences during the holocaust remains unknown, we do know that Arthur successfully remained hidden from the Nazis for the entire duration of the war! We know this because, as if evading the Nazis wasn’t incredible enough,  Arthur reunited with Marie and their family after the Holocaust.

 

Arthur and Marie Majerowicz Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde membership card, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Arthur and Marie resumed their life together, living in a German displaced persons camp. Although Marie was not born Jewish, she and Arthur both held memberships to the Israelite Religious Community in Munich after the war, as can be seen from their membership cards to the right. Eventually, Arthur and Marie followed their daughter, Irma, and her husband Irving to the United States and living out their remaining years in New York.

 

 

 

Arthur Majerowicz Test Certificate, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

While Arthur’s file doesn’t have any primary sources from his time in hiding, it has a wealth of information about his life before and after the war, such as this certificate Arthur received for passing an exam that certified him in his field of work. This certificate, dated October 4th,  1911, was issued to Arthur after working in the field from 1907 to 1911.

Marie Majerowicz

Marie and Arthur Majerowicz, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Marie, Sharon’s grandmother, had quite a different experience from the rest of her family. Since Marie was not Jewish, she was not forced into a concentration camp. Instead, Marie suffered in a much different way. She continued living and working in Berlin, but she had to sit back and watch as her husband and children either faced persecution or fled to other countries where they would be safe.

Marie and Ruth Majerowicz, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

She had to read falsely cheery postcards from her son, who was in a workcamp, as well as the (clearly insincere and uncaring) letter the Nazis sent her when her son perished. She had to live with the anxiety everyday that her husband may be found. She had to send her youngest daughter to the Kindertransport program so that she could be taken away from her and sent to another country, where she would be safe.

 

 

Marie Majerowicz, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

On a table in her Berlin apartment, Marie kept pictures of all the Majerowicz family members (pictured in the background of the photo to the left), including the daughter-in-law and granddaughter (age two or three) who she never got to meet as both of them perished in a concentration camp. Undoubtedly a strong woman, Marie lived through the war, reunited with her husband and two out of three of her children, moved to the United States, and lived out the rest of her days.

Sigfried Majerowicz

Sigfried Majerowicz, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Sigfried’s story is a tragic one. Brother of Arthur and beloved uncle of Irma Majerowicz, Sharon’s mother, Sigfried did not live through the Holocaust. Not only was Sigfried Jewish, he was also openly homosexual. This was not one but two marks against him in the Nazis’ eyes.

Sigfried Majerowicz, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collections, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Even if he had not been Jewish, he most likely would have been targeted by Hitler simply because he was a gay man. Knowing that he was surely marked for death, Sigfried took his own life rather than face torture at the hands of the Nazis.

 

Kurt Majerowicz

Kurt Majerowicz, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Kurt, Sharon’s uncle, was the only son of Arthur and Marie Majerowicz. After the rise of the Nazis, Kurt fled to the Netherlands where he lived in several refugee camps as well as with a Dutch woman in Amsterdam before ending up in Westerbork, a work camp for Jews. This camp later became the transportation center for the deportation of Dutch Jews who were sent to concentration camps.

Power of Attorney document from Kurt in Westerbork, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

It was at Westerbork that Kurt met Rita Schlachet, a refugee from Austria. The two were married and had a baby girl, Marie. Eventually they were shipped off to concentration camps in Germany. Rita and baby Marie were sent to Auschwitz where they were murdered by the Nazis shortly after being transported. Marie was only a couple years old at the time of her death. Kurt was sent to Gros Rosen where he survived a little longer, but he eventually perished in Buchenwald.

 

Birthday postcard from Kurt, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Kurt’s mother received a very insincere letter regarding his death. A stolperstein, or a “stumbling stone,” was purchased later on by the family in Kurt’s memory. Stolpersteine are brass plates that are inscribed with Holocaust victims’ names and life dates. These plates are then fixed into sidewalks of various cities that participate in this program. Kurt’s stolperstein is located in Berlin.

Irma Majerowicz Cantor

Irma and a Friend in Germany Before the War, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Irma Majerowicz was Sharon’s mother and the eldest daughter of Arthur and Marie. Being of working age when the Holocaust began, Irma sought a way out of the country to escape the Nazis. Her opportunity came to her in the form of a test. Irma applied to a program that sent women to England to work as domestics in wealthy households. If Irma could clean a house spotless from top to bottom, she would be allowed to travel to England, where she could work cleaning the houses of wealthy people.

Irma and Kurt Majerowicz, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Irma passed the test with flying colors and proceeded to England, where she met Irving Cantor, and American soldier and  her future husband. Before she left for England, though, Irma visited Westerbork, where she saw her brother Kurt one last time. The photograph to the right is the last time Irma ever saw her brother alive.

Irma and Irving Cantor’s Wedding, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Irma followed Irving to the United States where they were wed at the Bay Shore Jewish center in New York. Irma lived out most of her life in New York state before following Sharon to Asheville where she lived for eleven years until her death at age 91.

Ruth Majerowicz Savoca

Ruth Majerowicz Kindertransport ID card, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Ruth was Sharon’s aunt and the youngest child of Arthur and Marie. Ruth’s story is very different from that of her parents and siblings. Born in 1929, Ruth was quite young when the Holocaust began and was unable to apply to work programs like her sister Irma. Instead, Ruth qualified for the Kindertransport, a program that worked to get children out of Nazi territory.

Ruth Majerowicz Savoca, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

The children were safely relocated in England where they were placed with families. At a young age, Ruth was take away from her family, friends, and country and thrown into a completely different world. Ruth was fortunate to be placed with extended family in England, but the experience of being uprooted and taken to a new country must have been difficult nonetheless. Having her life altered so drastically undoubtedly affected Ruth’s strength of will and perseverance. By age fourteen, Ruth was on her own in England and working as a secretary.

Ruth and Frank Savoca, Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collection, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804.

Eventually, Ruth also made her way to the United States with the help of her sister’s husband, Irving Cantor, who sponsored her. Ruth settled in New York like her sister and parents. After relocating to the United States, Ruth met her husband, Frank Savoca. Before her death, Ruth and Sharon were able to participate in a reparations trip to Germany. Ruth was also able to connect with other individuals who had been Kindertransport children and had this unique experience during the war.

I hope this online exhibit has given you a glimpse into the different experiences that the Majerowiczes lived during the Holocaust. If you are interested in learning more about their journey, feel free to peruse the finding aid for the collection. Once the pandemic has passed and UNCA’s Special Collection is open once more, I would encourage each and every one of you to visit Special Collections at Ramsey Library to learn more about their collections on Jewish History and the remarkable stories these collections hold.

– Kristen Byrnes

Remembering the Holocaust Part 3: John Rosenthal’s Story

In honor of Yom Hashoah, the Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day, as well as the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, we are continuing our Remembering the Holocaust project. This project pulls from two different collections at Ramsey Library Special Collections, Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains and The Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, to explore, honor, and celebrate Holocaust survivors. This is the third installment in the series. John Rosenthal was a young boy from Cologne, Germany when the Nazis took over. John had a long journey before he and his family finally came to the United States, where they finally found a home.

A Tumultuous Journey

John Rosenthal’s Story

 

Rosenthal Family, Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville.

Individuals experienced the Holocaust differently. For Frederick John Rosenthal, a young boy from Cologne, Germany, it began with being sent off to Holland. John’s parents, recognizing the growing tensions in 1933 with Hitler’s rise to power, thought it would be best to send John and his brother, Max Adolph, somewhere they would be safer. John and Max’s move to Holland was the first of many moves within the span of a couple of years. Because of constantly moving—much of which was to other countries—John’s education was interrupted. At times learning was extremely difficult due to language barriers.

John recalled one place, Landschulheim Herrlingen, in particular as extremely pleasant. Landschulheim Herrlingen was Jewish boarding school in southern Germany near Ulm. Located in the countryside, not far from what would later be the home of German General Erwin Rommel, Herrlingen provided John and his brother with a “beautiful education” that included music and crafts. However, Herrlingen was also short lived for John. One day, while jogging through the woods, John started limping and fell behind the others. It was discovered that John had contracted Polio and had to return home to Cologne. Back in Cologne John was given all sorts of treatments, from hydrotherapy to electroshock, and had to take two aspirins every night before bed just so he would withstand the pain enough to sleep. What helped the most, John remembered, is his father rubbing his thighs with extract of “bee poison” every night, which “had the effect of increasing blood circulation.” By this time things were tough for Jews in Germany. Jews could no longer attend German public school, go to the movies or opera, or even sit on park benches. “Everywhere you went and looked there were signs, ‘Juden unerwuenscht,’ or ‘Jews not wanted here.’” John also recalled kids chasing after him and throwing stones at him, yelling “Jud, Jud.”

Jewish School in Ulm, Germany, Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville.

As things continued to worsen, the Rosenthals began to consider emigrating. They looked to friends in England and the United States for help. John’s father had to sell his business before they could leave. The buyer ended up being a former employee and friend of the Rosenthals who had joined the Nazi party. She bought the business for only 1/3 it’s actual worth. In the meantime, things were rapidly deteriorating for Jews. Daily life included things such as open trucks “filled with Nazi brown shirts, driving through the streets singing their Nazi songs, ‘When Jewish blood spurts from the knife, things go twice as well.’” Then came Kristallnacht.

On the morning of Kristallnacht, John’s father had left to go to the police headquarters to pick up their passports so they could leave for America. After being warned by friends about what was happening, he quickly returned home, gathered up his family and some provisions, and the Rosenthals hid for three days in the top story of their apartment building, among the washers and dryers. The Rosenthals all survived, although the Jewish high school and their synagogue did not.

Frederick John Rosenthal’s Passport, Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville.

The Rosenthals were finally able to leave Germany—though not before they paid part of the Judenbusse, the penalty Jews were required to pay for a murder of a German diplomat by a Polish Jew, which was the official reason for Kristallnacht—so they headed to Switzerland before continuing to the United States. The elder Rosenthals had thought ahead and sent much of John’s mother’s jewelry and handmade dresses out of the country. These would provide them with a source of income once they were free from Germany.

The United States was a time of acclimation for John, who had to learn a new way of speaking and dressing. “…the English I learned was the King’s English and of course I was made fun of in school. Also, I wore short pants, which also were made fun of, so the two quickest acclimatizations were dropping the King’s English and dropping the pants to full length.” John’s parents continued moving the family around until John’s mother’s business was finally reestablished in New York City, where it became quite successful and included customers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, B. Altman, and Henri Bendel, and more. John helped out with the business by taking charge of all the incoming and outgoing correspondence. The United States was also where John received his first degree through a business school in New York.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, John was drafted into the United States Army where he was sent to the University of Minnesota as part of an Army Specialized Training Program. It was on his journey to Minnesota that John stopped off in Asheville, where he later returned to live.

John had a long, tumultuous journey before he and his family finally found a home. He is a reminder of the great lengths to which parents would go to keep their children safe, even though “safe” was a hard place to find during these trying times. The elder Rosenthals used every mean with in their capabilities to rescue their family from a terrible fate that many others were not fortunate enough to escape. Despite difficulties John faced, and perhaps even in defiance of the abuses John and his family experienced at the hands of the Nazis, they did finally find a safe place to call home.

John’s story is part of the Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains collection at D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, located at the University of North Carolina Asheville. This collection is a compilation of oral histories of Holocausts survivors. For more information on John and other survivors’ stories, visit Ramsey Library Special Collection’s online finding aid.

If you are interested in exploring more Holocaust survivor history, please see our newly processed collection, the Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection.

-Kristen Byrne

 

Remembering the Holocaust Part 2: Richard Braun’s Story

In honor of Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, as well as the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, we are exploring some of the stories in our Jewish History collections at Ramsey Library Special Collections. This week is the second installment of our Remembering the Holocaust series. Like Hilde Hoffman (from our previous post), Wolfgang Richard “Dick” Braun was a child during the rise of the Nazis. From recalling the prejudice he experienced at the hands of his fellow students to remembering the signs hung in public places saying “Jews not wanted,” Dick’s story shows us what it meant to internalize these abuses as a child, to accept them as “the order of things.”

“The Order of Things”

Dick Braun’s Story

Young Dick Braun, Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville.

“The Germans swallowed Hitler lock-stock-and-barrel because he promised them a rebuilding of a greater Germany and he was well on his way,” remembered Wolfgang Richard “Dick” Braun. Dick was the son of affluent, well-educated parents who believed there was no way the good Germans could really subscribe to the Nazis’ silly propaganda. However, after reading Mein Kampf, Dick’s father took Hitler at his word and knew Hitler was very serious about his plans.

Dick’s memories of Nazi Germany were through the eyes of a child, as he was around 10 or 11 when Hitler came to power. Dick recalled kids coming to school in brown Hitler Youth uniforms and all the teachers wearing swastika buttons on their clothing. Eventually, Dick asked to be excused from the outings his class would take. These outings were part of the official school curriculum and involved things like hiking and were designed to help the kids develop an appreciation of nature. However, as Nazi ideals and prejudices continued gaining hold in German society, children like Dick experienced harassment and abuse at the hands of their fellow students. Dick remembered having to run away at times because it would become physical.

Wolfgang Richard Braun’s Passport Page 2, Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville.

The racism didn’t just stop at school, though. Dick recalled seeing Nazi flags flying outside of people’s windows on holidays and knowing immediately what this meant–these individuals were antisemitic. They didn’t like people like Dick or his family. Dick also remembered seeing signs in public places that said things like “Jews not wanted.” He didn’t remember these things as painful, exactly, because children don’t really have any perspective on this. They simply see these sorts of prejudice and accept it as “the order of things.” Dick also recalled another tool of racism that the Nazis used called an Ahnenpaß, which was a sort of “ancestry pass.” These documents could be used to separate Jews from non-Jews and allow people like police officers to single out Jews for mistreatment. According to these documents, being 1/8 Jewish made you a Jew. Dick related it to racial distinctions that were made in the United States, where a drop of Black blood made you Black.

Dick Braun with His Paternal Grandmother and Cousin, Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville.

Dick’s father, who was a physician, lost his practice in 1935 due to the Nuremburg Laws. It was then that Dick’s father decided they had to leave Germany. The elder Braun left for England to see whether this country would be a suitable place to relocate his family. While in England, Dr. Braun decided to travel to the United States as well and, after locating some family in the U.S. who were willing to provide the Brauns with affidavits, Dr. Braun decided the family would be relocating to the U.S. The Brauns were luck in that their entire family, save for Dick’s elderly paternal grandmother, made it out of Germany alive. As for Dick and his parents, they lived in Manhattan where life remained difficult as the U.S. was in the midst of a depression and Manhattan was overrun with doctors, making it more difficult for Dick’s father to find work.

Dick’s experiences are a painful reminder of the effects and influences that our beliefs and political policies have on children. Even though many gentile children previously had no issue with Jewish children, they learned this behavior from their parents and government. Even though Jewish children previously noticed no difference between themselves and their peers, they were taught to understand that they were separate and lesser. These lessons are internalized and, although it is possible to undo such social conditioning, the memories of segregation and hate and exclusion will remain.

Dick’s story is part of the Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains collection at D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, located at the University of North Carolina Asheville. This collection is a compilation of oral histories of Holocausts survivors. For more information on Dick and other survivors’ stories, visit Ramsey Library Special Collection’s online finding aid.

If you are interested in exploring more Holocaust survivor history, please see our newly processed collection, the Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection.

– Kristen Byrnes

Remembering the Holocaust Part 1: Hilde Hoffman’s Story

We are pleased to feature a series of blog posts in honor of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on Tuesday, April 21 this year. The posts were written and researched by Kristen Byrnes, an alum of the UNC Asheville History Department who is currently enrolled in UNC Greensboro’s Master of Library and Information Studies program. Kristen did this work as part of her practicum through UNCG’s MLIS program, working with several collections from UNCA’s Jewish Life in Western North Carolina Collections to illustrate the impact of the Holocaust on individuals. This first of four posts tells the story of Hilde Hoffman. Kristen’s posts will come out each week during April.

– Gene Hyde, Head of Special Collections.

This year’s Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, is particularly special as this year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. In honor of this event, we will be celebrating our local Jewish community with a series of posts that highlight Holocaust survivors in Western North Carolina. These posts will pull from two incredible collections at are housed at Special Collections: Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains and the Sharon Fahrer Holocaust Collection, a new addition to our repository. Please enjoy the first installment of our Remembering the Holocaust series as we learn about Hilde Hoffman’s story.

Prejudice: A Learned Behavior:

Hilde Hoffman’s Story

Hilde Hoffman with lion cub, Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville.

At first, the rise of the Nazis wasn’t particularly alarming, Hilde remembers. “I just heard the marching of big armies of people, marching and demonstrating and singing and the running around with flags and in the beginning, it seemed like just a very patriotic behavior after the war and no personal fear was felt. It wasn’t until… the end of 1934 when new rules were made.” These rules—which would change how Jews related and interacted with the rest of society—were even felt, though not always understood, by children.

From a young age Hilde knew she was Jewish, but that was the only difference she could see between herself and Lottie, her best friend who was not Jewish. Hilde and Lottie’s friendship continued during the rise of the Nazi party. The Nazis began to inject segregation into Germany’s school systems, prohibiting Jewish children from playing with their classmates at recess. They were made to eat lunch separately as well. Hilde remembers this isolation as absolutely devastating. Eventually, non-Jewish people were no longer allowed to interact with Jews. Despite this rule, Lottie’s aunts—at great risk to themselves—insisted Hilde accompany the aunts and Lottie on a vacation under the guise that Hilde was just another one of their nieces. This was the summer of 1934. This, Hilde says, show that “sincere friends are willing to take tremendous chances.” Hilde took a chance herself when she snuck into the church to see Lottie’s confirmation, an act that was absolutely forbidden. Hilde later received a photograph in the mail of Lottie in her white confirmation dress. Lottie’s confirmation in the Spring of 1935 would be the last time Hilde ever saw her.

“Prejudice is something we learn. We either learn it by seeing it from our elders, or it is taught in some schools, maybe, and we have to be careful that we don’t indulge in that because it’s going to poison our outlook in life and it limits our abilities…”

She also remembers witnessing segregation in larger society as Jews were prohibited visiting public places such as the theater, concerts, even the zoo. This was another shattering blow to Hilde, who had long loved the zoo. Since Hilde visited the zoo multiple times a week, she was familiar with all the zookeepers. She recalls the birth of a lion cub who was rejected by its mother. The zookeeper took this cub and placed it with his dachshund who had just given birth to puppies. The dachshund nursed the lion cub for a few weeks until the cub grew too large and the keepers began to bottle feed it. Throughout this time, Hilde visited the zoo often and knew of the lion cub’s progression. On the last day Jews were allowed to visit the zoo, Hilde’s father took her one last time. The zookeeper, seeing Hilde crying said, “if you father has a camera with him, why don’t you have your picture taken with your lion cub because then you’ll always remember.” Hilde sat on a bench with the cub, talked to him, and had her photo take with him.

Hilde with Lottie and Lottie’s aunts, Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains, D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville.

Hilde’s message for us is a call to educate ourselves. “You live in a free country, this is probably the best country in the whole world […] At one time Germany was a beautiful country, Russia was a more or less beautiful country, look what happened to all these countries because people didn’t care enough to maintain their society at a certain level of broadmindedness […] Try to get to know as many people as you can of as many different religions, of as many different nationalities or if you can travel you see them in their own country, which is even more educational. And after a while you will understand that doing this, you’re not losing a thing of your own identity, but you’re enriched by the things that you can learn from other people and that they can learn from you. And most of all, prejudice isn’t born in nobody. No baby ever that I’ve met and I’ve met a lot of babies, has shown any kind of prejudice. So prejudice is something we learn. We either learn it by seeing it from our elders, or it is taught in some schools, maybe, and we have to be careful that we don’t indulge in that because it’s going to poison our outlook in life and it limits our abilities and I think it takes away some of our happiness.”

Hilde’s story is part of the Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains collection at D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, located at the University of North Carolina Asheville. This collection is a compilation of oral histories of Holocausts survivors. For more information on Hilde and other survivors’ stories, visit Ramsey Library Special Collection’s online finding aid.

For Hilde’s full interview, please see the video below.

– Kristen Byrnes

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