Holocaust survivor finds healing through needle and thread

The Allied invasion of Normandy 80 years ago today marked a pivotal event that historians often call the beginning of the end of World War II. This operation began the liberation of territories occupied by the Nazis and ended up putting an end to the atrocities that resulted in the extermination of more than 6 million Jews.

Trudie Strobel, 86, is a Holocaust survivor who, as a child, worked alongside her mother in labor camps. Her mother, Masha, was a seamstress and was forced to sew clothes for Adolf Hitler’s army.

Weaving her story of persecution and perseverance, Strobel hand-stitches her dark memories into tapestries.

She recalled an incident at age 4 when a Nazi “took my doll away from me” and her mother’s emotional response.

“My mother was so scared and said, ‘Don’t cry, Trudella, don’t cry,’” Strobel recalled.

The doll was a gift from her father, Vasilliy Labuhn, who was taken from his family because he was Jewish.

“It’s incredible to verbalize all this abuse that was given to us. I was scared. Always scared. And the biggest fear I had was that they would take me away from my mom,” Strobel said.

Strobel remembers being called a “Dirty Jew” as she and her mother were loaded into a cattle car in Russia. They rode for more than 600 miles and then walked to a labor camp in Poland. She remembers seeing people falling, unable to walk or move.

“Somehow I still feel like I carry all of us on my shoulders,” Strobel said.

In 1945, Strobel and her mother were freed by American soldiers after Germany’s surrender, ending World War II. Strobel and her mother traveled to the United States, and the moment of arriving in New York Harbor will forever be etched in her memory as she remembers people crying.

“We were all very happy,” she said.

In 1951, Strobel and his mother settled in Chicago and started a new life. She worked in a kitchen at age 13, learning to clean floors and peel potatoes.

At 18, she married Hans Strobel and raised two children.

Honoring Your History with Tapestries

Strobel began sewing tapestries in middle age, when the horrors he witnessed resurfaced. Unable to eat or speak, she picked up a needle and thread to express what was on her mind – a life-saving skill she learned while crouching silently beside her mother.

Sewing became healing as Strobel slowly stitched together her life while honoring Jewish history.

While imprisoned, Strobel remembers looking up at the sky and imagining the geese she loved in Russia, which appear in many of her pieces.

She only shared her work with family and close friends until 8 years ago, when she met Jody Savin and her daughter, Maya. As part of her bat mitzvah studies, Maya asked to meet a Holocaust survivor. Savin – author and filmmaker – and her daughter were amazed by the art and powerful story of survival.

“To me, looking at Trudie’s art, it feels like she’s holding a lens into her life. It was a completely eye-opening experience. Like this visceral education about the Holocaust, the education about genocide that I’ve never had before,” said Maya Miller.

She he befriended Strobel, convincing her that her work needed to be displayed, and even found the first sponsor to display the tapestries. Since then, Strobel has traveled across the country sharing her story.

Savin recently wrote Strobel’s biography and is working on a documentary to preserve his story for future generations.

Despite the horrors he has witnessed in his life, Strobel said he has refrained from anger and bitterness because holding on to hate only spreads it.

“The person next to you has the same value as you. We must respect this person,” she said. “And if we all did that on Earth, you know, we’d never have a war. We’d all get along. And we’d dance together.”