- This program is made possible in part by generous support from Dogwood Health Trust, a private foundation based in Asheville, North Carolina, focused on dramatically improving the health and well-being of all people and communities in the 18 counties and the Qualla Boundary of Western North Carolina.

♪ - [Elizabeth] Coming up on Best of Our State.

From Nazi occupied Europe to North Carolina's executive mansion, how a family heirloom became a gift of light.

- To read a history book and learn history that way and it's another one to live through history and we lived through it.

- And the Brasstown carvers carry forward the rich Appalachian tradition of wood carving.

- We were carving napkin rings and geese, sheep, cows... - Pig, swan, rabbit.

- Dogs, horses, you know, it's mainly the animals they knew.

- That's next on Best of Our State.

We dip into the treasured stories for a look at all the beauty and character of North Carolina.

Hello, I'm Elizabeth Hudson, editor in chief of Our State Magazine and your host.

At the western edge of North Carolina, the John C. Campbell Folk School has lovingly preserved Appalachian heritage and fostered hands-on creativity for the past 100 years.

For the Brasstown carvers, it's time for the next generation to pick up the blade and carry forward the rich Appalachian tradition of wood carving.

- The Brasstown carvers are a pretty essential part of the history here, especially the craft history.

- Look at the hedgehog.

- I like the turkey.

- I realized that I had found what I wanted to be when I grew up.

And that sounds crazy because I'm 55, but it gave me what I want to do in my retirement.

So right now I have forgotten about everything else in the world except for this goose.

- A lot of people say you just take away everything that you don't want and what's in there will be what comes out.

I've got one here that's the first one I ever made.

That's kind of what it's all about, it's what you see in it.

- Here's a skill that people can learn, it's a creative skill, and the items that they make can go out and be sold and provide an income.

- Did you see the detail in it?

The detail is incredible.

- It's in you.

You see, you know what to bring out of it.

- There you go.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- People don't realize when they go to buy a carving, what it entails to make that one carving.

I pull the wood out of my shed down here.

Mostly now we use basswood because it's easier on the hands and we've got patterns to where you can start carving.

And I'll cut them out on a band saw.

So it's always turning and reassessing.

That way it keeps you symmetrical and even and you don't get lopsided or something like that.

- And then once you actually make the animal, you'll sand it probably five or six different grades, you know, to make it real smooth.

And you've got probably 10 or 12 hours in it.

So you just really don't understand what it's like unless you've done it.

I'm Richard Carter.

I'm one of the Brasstown carvers.

- My name is Angela Wynn.

I have been a Brasstown carver for about two and a half years now.

I moved to this area not knowing a soul.

I lucked out in finding the folk school.

I didn't even know about it.

Once I started seeing all the different classes, the history really took me, I think, first.

- The John C. Campbell Folk School was founded in 1925 by two women, Olive Dame Campbell and Marguerite Butler.

And they were both really interested and invested in working in Appalachia to better life here.

- So originally it was for young folks who were on the farm.

And the intent was for them to stay during the winter and give them something to do, to learn, and then eventually a way to make an income, which is where the carving kind of plays in.

- Not my living, but I do it because I can make some extra money, which is what it started out about to help people out.

- The story of the origin of the Brasstown carvers is that Olive Dame Campbell was passing by Fred O. Scroggs' store in Brasstown one day.

And there was a group of men there who would whittle on a bench that was outside.

- They saw a lot of men down here at a local store making some shavings, what we call whittling.

- She saw the potential in that as an economic support for the local people.

- I think she just basically wanted to enrich their lives to help the area grow because other than what they grew, they didn't have nothing.

- So she encouraged them to carve the different animals and the figures and start to sell them.

- Here's a really good one of Murray.

There's been a lot of patterns over the years done by Muriel Martin or Murray Martin.

She came in 1935 to be the craft director.

She worked at the folk school for almost 40 years and was really the lead for the Brasstown carvers during that time.

- They were carving napkin rings and geese, sheep, cows.

- Pig, swan, rabbit, squirrel.

- Dogs, horses, just any kind of animal that, you know, it's mainly the animals they knew.

- Yeah, here's a whole table full of carvings, which are really cool to see in the early photos.

- The Brasstown carvers were very popular in the 30s and 40s, especially with Appalachian crafts.

Tying in with the craft revival, there's just a lot of interest.

- It really shows like how prolifically people were carving.

- And people would wait years to be able to collect all of the different carvings as they came into stock.

- So they ended up expanding and they had a shop in New York.

Then they were invited to sell in D.C.

And I think that's where Eleanor Roosevelt bought a set of geese carvings and they ended up at one point gifting one to Queen Elizabeth.

So they made it far and wide.

- There's Richard early on.

These are a lot of the really key, well-known carvers from the previous generation, including Richard Carter, who bridges the gap.

So Richard Carter is really, I think, the linchpin at this point between connecting the older and the younger carvers.

- When I started in, they had had Jack Hall.

He was a carver that was teaching a daughter a class once a week.

And they'd meet here every Friday and show her work.

And if they liked it, they took it.

If they didn't, you had to fix it right in front of them.

- I started here in 2016.

When I came, the program was kind of struggling.

There were about probably four carvers at that point, which I think was the low point for the program.

- There just didn't seem to be as many people interested.

As a source of income, it's not as necessary anymore because there's a lot more job opportunities in the local area.

- And Richard would come into the craft shop at least three or four times a week.

And he'd bring some carvings.

But he'd also really talk about how we really needed to recruit new people.

- Richard is the glue that holds carvers together, I feel like.

So I got to study directly under him for a whole year.

We worked four hours a day together once a week.

- A lot of times, if we see something in somebody, we think they're going to be good.

We've got some small animals we call least ones.

And we'll set up where they can do five in a row to where they can see their progression.

- Yeah, nothing's perfect in nature.

We're not symmetrical.

So I do like to add a little bit of whimsy to my characters.

I like to add a little bit of whimsy and movement into my carvings.

- And I guess I had a knack for it that I didn't even realize.

But Richard told me within a couple of months that he thought I could be a Brasstown carver.

So I immediately jumped on that chance.

- Oh, I was so excited.

I was 20 years younger than the next carver.

So it was like I was starting a new chapter for them.

I even carry my carving kit to work and sit outside under an umbrella on my lunch break.

So, you know, I haven't looked back since.

It's a big responsibility, but a big honor.

- So the community night started around 2019 and has been slowly building.

- The folk school has always been about community.

That was one of their main goals was community.

And so now the community is kind of flowing back in.

- That's pretty.

That'll work.

That'd be nice.

- Richard gets here like two hours early and sets up all the tables and him and Carolyn Anderson both teach together.

And we'll have, you know, 40 people some nights.

They meet every single Thursday.

- So Carolyn and Rich says, why don't you get with us and let us give you a little bit of a lesson, let you start carving.

- If there's somebody that's never touched carving, never tried, I've got the stuff and the blocks and the stuff to spark their interest.

- I like the people.

Usually the Brasstown carvers take somebody and run them through what they need to get and sort of check in with them.

- Not only you've been talking about carving, we do that, of course.

Well, what are you working on?

Oh, look at this.

I did this.

I figured out how to do that.

I think I want to carve this next.

There's a lot of that, but also just community chit chat.

- Yeah, it's getting with the people, having somebody to talk to.

We help each other.

- We're so fortunate that we still have some of the long time carvers involved with the folk school.

One of them is Helen Gibson.

- I've been a Brasstown carver since I was about 11 years old.

I do the Mary and Joseph and Shepherd and the Wise Men.

- And this year she won the North Carolina Heritage Award, what is the highest state award for a folk and traditional artist.

- Do I go like that?

- Yeah, try going one direction.

- Yeah, first time.

- First time here.

- Yes, first time here, first time carving.

- It's really nice to see children, young adults, being interested in carving, even if they don't necessarily continue the tradition and really take that on.

They're at least being exposed to it and learning part of the skill.

- Really cozy and also really welcoming.

All the people are really nice here.

- I love it.

I would, yeah, I want to keep coming here, maybe become a Brasstown carver one day or something.

- So I think Olive Dame Campbell would really like to see that.

- Wonderful people here, a wonderful group of instructors and a good bunch of folks who come together to learn.

- So this year the folk school turns 100.

And our hope is that we can continue to find ways to meet the needs of our communities.

And so I am thrilled to see the Brasstown carving program growing and I hope that it can continue to grow.

- It's basically just about going around and around and carving in the round.

- It's an exciting time to see the Brasstown carvers because they've grown so much over just the last couple of years.

- Starting here like this, now kind of bring out the shoulder for this little bear will have a hump.

- And Richard's very excited to teach anyone who's interested and to continue that tradition.

I've really enjoyed working with you, Richard.

It's definitely made it much simpler for me to understand how to use a knife.

- I think there is a lot of interest in handmade things and things that have a story and tell a story.

- That's the first set up.

- That's good, yeah.

- To me being a Brasstown carver is really something special.

And you should have the want to, to do that.

- The future of the Brasstown carvers will maintain.

Now we've got 16 carvers and it's becoming more popular.

- When you come here, you feel welcome.

And I'm hoping it becomes a tradition.

- I've carved 50 something years and one day when I'm not able to cut the blocks out, keep the class going, I've got classmates and Brasstown carvers that can step in and take my place and keep it going on for the future.

- I hope so.

- Next thing I might have to carve will be a little acorn that he can be sitting there holding and playing with.

- That's my great hope is that people keep coming and keep it going.

- I won't turn back.

This is so peaceful and relaxing to me.

I'm a carver for life.

♪ - [Elizabeth] For decades, it sparkled in silence, its story untold.

From the horrors of Nazi occupied Europe to a new home in North Carolina, learn how one family's heirloom became a beacon of resilience.

Here's the remarkable true story behind the gift of light.

♪ - Shortly after I started working for the governor, the director of the mansion told me that the chandelier in the state dining room was actually donated by a Jewish family that had escaped the Nazis and sought refuge in North Carolina.

They donated it to the state out of gratitude for welcoming them.

I thought this story was so beautiful and so moving.

I felt drawn to it.

I wanted to know more.

And every once in a while, I would try to find the family.

We knew that their last name was Horowitz and that they had lived in Asheville.

And so I would try searching different terms to try and find them and I could never figure out who they were.

One day in August of 2023, former first lady Carolyn Hunt found some letters in her files that were from the woman who donated the chandelier.

She passed those along to the governor's office and they made their way to me.

I really went into detective mode and I was able to find who I was pretty sure was them.

And I took a chance and I sent a cold email.

Five minutes later, everything changed.

♪ - Today is December 15, 1988.

We're in New Haven, Connecticut.

Could you please tell us your name?

- My name is Carla Horowitz.

I'm really Caroline Charlotte Horowitz.

- What is that, what is your maiden name?

My maiden name is Carla Strauss.

- The chandelier belonged to Gustav and Selma Strauss who lived in Barmen, Germany.

And we've actually seen some pictures of the chandelier in their really grand home there before the war.

Their daughter was Caroline.

- I gave birth to my son November of 1937.

I was barely out of childbed when my husband came home and said, "Caroline, I've got to talk to you and this is not pleasant, but don't get upset.

We cannot stay here.

It's becoming, it's coming to the point where they're going to take everything we have away and they may be even threatening our lives.

(speaking in German) - The family ended up going to Holland.

And so at this point, it's Gustav and Selma who own the chandelier, their daughter Caroline, her husband Peter, and then their grandson, Robert Horowitz.

Ultimately, Gustav and Selma were caught by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp where they perished.

Caroline, her husband Peter, and their four-year-old son Robert were able to make an absolutely daring escape out of Europe.

They were able to get into free France on foot and then take one of the last boats out of Portugal before ultimately getting into the United States where they made their way to Murphy, North Carolina.

Every tale of people who were able to make it out of Nazi Germany or occupied territory is special and remarkable in its own way, but this story really took my breath away.

The level that the Nazis went to to prevent Jews from having passports, from having bank accounts, from having any type of resource to be able to escape Europe was just beyond comprehension.

And so they had to outsmart them at every juncture.

And then eventually when they were on foot, they had a four-year-old with them.

The story that really just strikes me and sits in my memory is Caroline tells about being almost crossing over out of occupied France into free France.

- We got a guide.

Guy spoke only French.

And he said, "We have to march."

And we marched.

Pete carried Robbie and I in my city clothes, tied up shoes, stupid shoes probably.

We marched all night.

All of a sudden, we came to a place where the man said, "Stop."

And we heard very distinctly that there was somebody there.

There were two border guards patrolling the border.

And our guide said to us, "Stop."

And we fell down on the ground.

And we all stopped breathing.

We heard one German soldier say to the other, "I have heard something there.

Listen carefully.

There's somebody here very close to us.

Let's try to get him."

But we were so close to them that the flashlight with which they searched the area shone over us.

And we were in a small trench just between the guys and the light.

Then a French girl came to our rescue.

She asked something in French.

And they walked away.

They left the people who they were searching for, and they walked with a girl with a bicycle.

And we lay another few minutes, and then we got ourselves up.

We were caked with dirt.

And we got up, and we walked, and we-- and the child did not give a sound.

He must have sensed that it was a very tense situation.

Got up.

We marched a little bit further, and then the guide spoke a little louder.

And he said, "Do you see the light back there?

That was the last German garrison.

We are in Bel-- we are in-- in Free France."

- At the time, my own son was four years old.

And I just felt such empathy for her as a mother.

How you get a four-year-old child to stay still and calm and absolutely silent when your life is on the line, the pressure involved with that is unimaginable.

And to be able to do that and then bounce back from it and lead this incredible life felt really special.

♪ In the first letter that we came across from Caroline, she talks about how after the war, she wrote to her family's lawyer back in Germany to see if he would be able to recover any of their possessions.

And he said that the family who was living in the house was eager to make restitution and return to the family what belonged to them.

And so at that point, she sent for and had shipped the chandelier.

People felt lucky to recover a candlestick or a small item.

And so to be able to reconnect with something so beautiful and so magnificent, it just felt like it really defied all odds.

- Wow.

That's stunning.

Definitely noticing those beautifully molded grape pendants and the scrolls.

And the globe is just really stunning quality at the bottom.

It's a beautiful piece.

So this is a really good example of a Maria Theresa chandelier.

You can definitely tell that it was manufactured in Austria.

Most people have heard of Swarovski, but there's another maker called J&L Loebmeier.

This is very much in line with their work.

But it does appear that it was originally electrified.

And if that's the case, what's really interesting about this chandelier is that Loebmeier was one of the first companies to ever make an electrified chandelier.

And they actually partnered with Thomas Edison to create the very first electrified chandelier in 1880.

So if this is from the late 19th century, this could be among the very first electrified chandeliers ever made, which is really, really neat, especially given all of its other history of donation and provenance.

It's quite an incredible story.

Confiscation of Jewish arts was quite prevalent.

So it is amazing that this chandelier even survived.

These pieces are very fragile.

They have hundreds of components to them that would have to be very carefully disassembled and then reassembled.

It's quite a delicate and intricate thing to ship, and I'm sure would have been extremely costly for them.

So it really speaks to their regard for the state of North Carolina that they wanted to donate it.

It's pretty amazing.

- One day, I think my children, my grandchildren specifically, will want to know what actually happened.

What, where... It's their family.

It's their roots, and they will want to know, why did we never know our grandparents better?

And, you know, it's one thing to read a history book and learn history that way, and it's another one to live through history.

And we lived through it.

We were in the very thick of it.

- This is the state dining room.

There it is.

- And the Strauss chandelier.

- Strauss chandelier, yeah, you just go in there.

- Having Robert and his son come to the mansion was a dream come true.

When I sat there thinking about the family that donated it, did I ever think I would be able to actually find them and have them come here and be willing to talk so openly about their story and their history?

- Speaking about, why did you feel called to tell this story today, to make the trip across the country to share this?

- Sadie.

[laughter and applause] - It felt important to me personally because it was almost like I had solved this mystery, even if it was one that I had created for myself.

It also felt important because there are so few Holocaust survivors left, and without people who are willing to tell their stories, the history can be very hard to access.

It's very hard to wrap your mind around the idea that six million people died.

But when you know somebody or you see an object, it brings it to life.

It makes it so much more real.

And I think that in this moment, where it feels so important to understand that if we allow indifference to take over, if we allow intolerance and hatred to take over, that that could easily happen again, it feels incredibly important that we were able to capture their story and really cement it as a part of North Carolina history.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - More information about Our State magazine is available at OurState.com or 1-800-948-1409.