"The Witness"
Sculpture By Erskine Staff Member To Be Displayed In New York
Beth Smith, circulation and serials manager at Erskine's McCain Library, likes to laugh — just ask anyone who has attended a meeting of the Erskine Staff Organization since she has served as its president. But Smith, a former middle and high school teacher, recently received recognition for some serious work from Holocaust survivor, author and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel.
"I had written a letter to Elie Wiesel and offered him one of my sculptures for his foundation," Smith said. "It was one called 'The Witness,' that shows Mary Magdalene, witness to Christ's crucifixion.
"Professor Wiesel's personal assistant called me October 15 and said that he really liked the sculpture and would like for me to send it to the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in New York City," Smith said. "It will be on display there."
A longtime admirer of Wiesel, Smith said she had used his book "Night," a memoir of his experiences in the death camps, to teach her students about the Holocaust. Wiesel and his family were deported to Auschwitz in 1943, when he was 15. His mother and younger sister died. Wiesel and his father were later taken to Buchenwald, where his father died shortly before the liberation of the camp. The book has been translated into more than 30 languages.
She felt called to do something for Wiesel, Smith said. "I really felt like God wanted me to do this," she said. "My sculpture comes from God — any talent I have is from God."
Smith described the "The Witness" in her letter to Wiesel. "I have created a sculpture depicting the suffering of Jewish women by portraying Mary Magdalene and an unknown woman of the Holocaust against the backdrop of a fence," she wrote. "The upper structure of the post resembles the cross and the barbed wire at the top forms a modern crown of thorns for the 'King of the Jews.'"
Smith said she also calls Mary Magdalene a "holocaust woman" because she was a witness to the horror of Christ's crucifixion. She said Mary saw the suffering and torture inflicted by the Romans, just as countless women saw the suffering and torture of their families during the Holocaust.
For some time, Smith has been intrigued by the word "witness" and what it means for both Christians and survivors of the Holocaust. She included some of her thoughts in her letter to Wiesel.
"In my faith it is regarded as an obligation to 'witness' for Christ," Smith wrote. "In the Holocaust it was regarded as a duty to 'witness' if you were a survivor."
Smith said the witness of Holocaust survivors gave meaning to the deaths of the victims. "The ones that went before you would be honored and the Holocaust would never happen again," she said.
For Christians, to witness can mean "going out and witnessing for the faith," Smith said, and she has given considerable thought to the role of Mary Magdalene as "the first witness."
"She was called to be the first witness — she was with Jesus at his death, she saw the angel inside the tomb," Smith said. "Women were not allowed to be witnesses in trials or civil suits at the time of Christ, but Mary Magdalene was a witness." She added that Mary Magdalene also witnessed the joy of the resurrection.
Smith started sculpting about two years ago after she took a painting class. She said she enjoyed painting, but realized "everything I did just looked like paint on a flat board." She tried sculpting and has been working at it ever since. "I've given all my sculptures away except for one that I traded for a stained glass window," said Smith. "It feels wonderful to make them — it's as if they're a part of me."
Polymer clay is Smith's medium, but she also incorporates natural elements, such as the wooden posts in 'The Witness.'
She has just finished a sculpture on Vietnam called "Sacrifice" that is her largest work to date, about 2 feet tall, depicting two soldiers helping a wounded soldier. "It has been accepted for the William Jennings Bryan Dorn Veterans Hospital in Columbia," said Smith. "I used moss and rocks in addition to clay in 'Sacrifice.'"
Elie Wiesel, born in 1928 in what is now Romania, is the author of more than 40 books of fiction and non-fiction. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed Wiesel as chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust. In 1980 he became founding chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He has been an American citizen since 1963, and is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among other awards.
The Elie Wiesel Foundation for humanity was established by Wiesel and his wife, Marion, shortly after he was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize for Peace. The foundation's stated mission is "to advance the cause of human rights by creating forums for the discussion and resolution of urgent ethical issues."
