Lorain Holocaust Remembrance Program features survivor, textile artist

LORAIN — Sewing has always been a part of Trudie Strobel's life, but she didn't find her voice for her art until her 40s. The intricate embroidery that now fills her Los Angeles home was born from her mother's hand-sewn work that kept the pair alive during the Holocaust, Strobel and her biographer, Jody Savin, told a filled auditorium at the Lorain Palace Theatre on Monday evening as part of a Holocaust Remembrance Day program. The California-based textile artist was born in Ukraine, just months after her father brought back a beautiful doll from a trip. He gave the doll to Trudie's mother, but not long after was a victim of Joseph Stalin's "disappearing" of Jewish men, Strobel and Savin said. Her father's disappearance — sent to Siberia — left Strobel's mother to tend their family farm, and work as a seamstress. It was work she managed well until the Nazis came four years later. A 650-mile march sent Strobel and her mother to a ghetto in Loche, Poland — a mere happenstance the pair weren't sent to any of the concentration camps along the way, Savin said. Loche was the worst place Strobel could remember, Savin said: Bodies littered the street and people were crammed together, all trying to negotiate their way out. From there, the pair were herded onto cattle cars; the doll Strobel's father got ripped from the little girl's arms by a guard. She remembered the Nazi's black boots, and the gaping mouths of their dogs, ready to attack, she said. They traveled in the car for days, before being brought to a camp outside Auschwitz. It was there, Strobel's mother's skills as a seamstress saved the pair, Savin said. Her mother's work was vital to the Nazi war machine — and Strobel's silence and invisibility was vital to her survival, Savin said. "They checked what everyone could do," Strobel said. "And Momma could sew. This is why she was kept busy with sewing. In a room there were just sewing machines and she sewed uniforms, blankets and whatever was needed … until one day, the door opened, and an American soldier came to the door (and said) 'You're free, the war is over.'" From there, Strobel remembered picking her mother a handful of daisies once they were taken to a displaced-persons camp in Germany. The theme of daisies, beauty, liberation, as well as barbed wire, and the ugliness of the war, are themes in Strobel's work, Savin said. Once in another displaced persons camp, Strobel was given a box with glass beads, and she and her mother embroidered a flying goose on a piece of fabric torn from her mother's skirt, she said. Decades later, that goose still hangs in Strobel's living room, she said. Eventually, after several years living in Germany, Strobel and her mother came to the United States. Strobel remembered when the captain pointed out the Statue of Liberty to the passengers and the tears shed by the newcomers to America. Strobel and her mother took a train from New York City to Chicago, where they settled in and Strobel's mother again found work as a seamstress. Strobel went to high school, and took up odd jobs after school, noting she was "the best potato peeler." At 18 years old, Strobel was introduced by a family friend to the man she would marry, Hans. He was a German-American Jew who survived the Holocaust in hiding, Savin said, though all Strobel was concerned about when they first met was whether or not he'd be wearing lederhosen. Instead, he was in a tan suit, sitting in their small, one-room apartment she said. "Our eyes met, and I'm sure most of you met the love of your life through your eyes, she said. "We were connected." About six weeks after their first, arranged meeting, the pair were married. And they were married for more than 55 years. Savin said eventually Hans' job transferred him to California, where he and Strobel would raise their two sons. The pair never told their children they were Holocaust survivors until they were adults, Savin said — again Strobel keeping that part of herself silent and invisible. Until an incident at work with a particularly cruel supervisor brought those memories rushing back, Savin said. A deep depression blanketed Strobel. While she initially refused to speak to the psychiatrist her husband took her to, she started to open up when the doctor suggested she dress a doll like the one she had as a small child. From there, Strobel began researching the history of the yellow Star of David they were made to wear under the Nazi regime, and found an 11-century history of Jews being identified for discrimination through clothing or tags. It was the first embroidery series Strobel completed and brought to the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles, Savin said. And the stitching Strobel started in her 40s never stopped. She continued to research, making tapestries of Jewish history, as well as portraits of her own relatives. Her work all uses single-thread embroidery, Strobel said, and each piece contains Yemenite stitching — the same type cataloged in the Bible as a way to hem priest's robes, Strobel said. Looking out at the audience, Storbel cautioned them all to always remember the person next to them is never of lesser value. "Once we understand this and use this in life, do you know I think we would have a peaceful world. This is where it starts when you think someone is of less value than you are … we must remember to do this so there will never be another Holocaust where you just pick on a group of people because of their religious belief," Strobel said. "We can never have this again in our lives, in ever. The Holocaust was such a different persecution and murderous happening to our group of people. We can never forget, and we must always remember." Strobel and Savin were connected by Savin's daughter, Maya Savin Miller, several years ago when Maya Savin Miller was getting ready for her bat mitzvah. At the time, Maya Savin Miller wanted to share her celebration with a young girl who died in the Holocaust and was given Strobel's phone number. The Savins and Strobel became close friends, and Jody Savin wrote Strobel's biography, "Stitched & Sewn: The Life-Saving Art of Holocaust Survivor Trudie Strobel," at her daughter's suggestion. For more information on Strobel, and Jody Savin's biography of her, visit trudiestrobel.com. Strobel will also speak at Oberlin College's Dye Lecture Hall at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. For more information, email holocaustprogram@gmail.com. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.