Stitching History From The Holocaust – Ellie Gettinger

To mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, watch this Zoom recording of a virtual tour of the exhibition Stitching History From The Holocaust as Ellie Gettinger, Education Director of the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, explores the life and work of Hedy Strnad.   
 
In the winter of 1939, Paul Strnad in Czechoslovakia, desperate to obtain an affidavit to escape the onslaught of Nazi Germany, wrote his cousin Alvin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Paul sent Alvin sketches of his wife Hedwig’s designs. Paul and Hedy hoped that these examples of her work would provide evidence of their financial independence and enable them to immigrate. Despite Alvin’s best efforts both Hedwig and her husband Paul were murdered in the Holocaust. All that remains of their story are their letter and Hedwig’s sketches.
 
In 1997, the Strnad family donated the letter and drawings, and they became central to the permanent collection of the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee, when it opened in 2008. A visitor commented that the Museum should create the dresses from Hedwig’s sketches, and this is the origin of the exhibition, Stitching History From The Holocaust. This program was co-sponsored with the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum. Click here to view the recording.