Stitching a Tragic History

The Jewish Museum of Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Thirties had been a tremendous time for trend. Nevertheless it was not a very good time to be Jewish. A current exhibit on the Jewish Museum in Milwaukee wove the 2 into an exhibit each lovely and haunting.

Girls’s excessive trend within the Thirties was an period of trendy hats, matching purses, and well-tailored attire. Heda Strnad was busy creating new designs and placing them to paper. Her desires of turning into a clothier saved her busy drawing photos of attire, coats, matching sneakers, cloth patterns, and hats with placing equipment. The ever growing pressures of Nazi Germany pressured her and her husband Paul to make the choice to tug up roots from their life in Prague and try to evacuate to America. However to take action, they first wanted to point out proof of their potential to help themselves and never turn into a burden on American society. They had been fortunate and her husband Paul’s cousin, Alvin Strnad lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. .

Hedy mailed her designs on paper to his cousin, hoping he might assist them get authorization to evacuate to Wisconsin. They hoped the drawings would assist show that they could possibly be self-supporting within the USA and escape from the ever-increasing risks of central Europe.

Quick ahead 60 years or so. In 1997, the drawings had been discovered by Alvin’s kids when cleansing out their mother or father’s basement in Milwaukee. They found that regardless of Alvin’s finest efforts, Paul and Heda weren’t in a position to escape the Nazis to freedom in America. They had been each killed whereas nonetheless in Europe.  All that is still of their lives are contained in that one letter with trend drawings tucked inside. The Strnad household donated that letter to the Jewish Museum. What the museum determined to do with it’s extraordinary.

The letter might have simply simply been filed away – a footnote to historical past tucked away in a field on a shelf. For a number of years, the letter was on show on the museum. Till the remark of 1 customer took maintain. A customer to the museum commented that these designs ought to be sewn. The thought took maintain and the story of a lady who dreamt of a world of magnificence, colours, design, and style would quickly take flight once more. The museum felt these designs wanted to be created and proven to the world. The drawings had been proper there – they only wanted artistic arms to deliver them to life.

Who higher than the artistic and gifted costume designers from the Milwaukee Repertory Theater? The crew of volunteers from the costume division on the theater set about creating these trend designs based mostly upon Heda’s drawings. Style was rather more hands-on within the Thirties and the designs required utilizing painstakingly correct methods to create. To duplicate the drawings, they wanted to make the very materials themselves together with silk screening the intricate patterns. With hand detailing together with handmade cloth lined buttons and specifically designed sneakers, the workforce introduced Heda’s creations to life giving her story a 3 dimensional actuality. Now the attire have been on show in a wonderful exhibit on the museum and are a part of a touring exhibit to Jewish and Holocaust museums across the nation.

Her unhappy story of dreaming of the long run, but having her future stolen from her in a most inhumane manner, is on full show in a manner only a letter in a show cupboard can not do. There’s a glory and sense of closure in with the ability to see her designs accomplished. Gone however not forgotten is a phrase often used. If not for one letter mailed to a cousin for assist, Heda and Paul Strnad’s story in all probability would have been forgotten. Relatively than simply tucked away in an envelope on a shelf, her story and her husband’s story could be informed and appreciated by all who go to.

Discover extra fascinating displays on the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee’s web site. You may go to the Jewish Museum in particular person on a Nice Lakes cruise that visits Milwaukee, Wisconsin: