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 “disap-

THOMAS FETCENKO | The Community Guide pearing” of Jewish men, Strobel and Savin said. Her father’s disappear- ance — sent to Siberia — left Strobel’s mother to tend their family farm, and work as a seamstress. It was work she managed

MAIN: Holocaust survivor Trudie Strobel spoke to an audience gathered at the Palace Theatre, located in downtown Lorain, on Monday, April 24 as part of the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) program.

ABOVE: Arnie Milner, president of Agudath B’nai Israel Synagogue, in Lorain, spoke at the start of the Holocaust Remembrance Day program.

Deanna Lee

Bealer

Deanna Lee Bealer, 81, of Wellington, died Monday, April 17, 2023 at Keystone Pointe. She was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on August 30, 1941 to Ernest and Vivian (nee Kornprobst) Good and moved to Wellington at the age of 12.

Deanna graduated with the Wellington High School Class of 1960. For many years, Deanna worked as a machinist at Whirlaway in Wellington. She was a member of the First Congregational UCC in Wellington and served as a poll worker during local elections. She also enjoyed going to baseball games. Truly a selfless person, Deanna always devoted her time to her kids and grandkids. She also loved listening to country music.

She is survived by her adoring children, Denny Bealer of Wellington, David (Christine) Bealer of Elyria

Sally Ann Kochis

Sally Ann Kochis (nee Eddy), 89, of Amherst, received her angelic wings on Saturday, April 15, 2023 at the Avenue in North Ridgeville, following a full and meaningful life. Arrangements by Hempel Funeral Home, Amherst.

Mary Belle Golden

Mary Belle Golden (nee Buchanan), 79, of Birmingham, passed away Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at Mercy Regional Medical Center in Lorain, following a full and meaningful life.

Amherst High School recieves water bottle station grant

AMHERST – The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency announced grants for water bottle filling stations at nearly 70 schools across the state, including one Amherst school.

Marion L. Steele High School’s Eco League received $3,716 to install the water bottle stations at the building.

bottle filling stations in more than 100 school buildings.

and Gail Bealer of Wellington; grandchildren, Jamie, Chase, Trey, and Taylor; four great-grandchildren; her brother, Ernest (Pat) Good, Jr. of Jacksonville, Florida and niece, Christine (John) Anderson.

Deanna was preceded in death by her sisters, Marlis Jean and Darlene. A private family graveside service will take place at Greenwood Cemetery.

Fond memories and condolences to the Bealer family may be given at www. norton-eastman funeralhome.com

Arrangements by Hempel Funeral Home, Amherst.

Linda Lou Abraham

Linda Lou Abraham (nee Starnes), a longtime resident of Amherst, was called home to be with her Lord and Savior on Saturday, April 15, 2023 at New Life Hospice Center of Lorain.

Hempel Funeral Home was in charge of the arrangements.

David Stephen Szekely

David Stephen Szekely, 72, of Elyria, passed away Wednesday, April 19, 2023, 2023, at his home following a brief illness.

Hempel Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.

Our condolences go out to families that have suffered the loss of a loved one. To place an obituary or death notice in the Community Guide, call (440) 329-7000.

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

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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

Ohio EPA just awarded Recycle Ohio grants to 68 schools, school districts, and dioceses in 41 counties. The money helps cover the cost of equipment to install or retrofit water fountains with water

Ohio EPA’s Recycling and Litter Prevention grant program made approximately $450,000 available to public and private K-12 schools statewide to promote the “Three Rs” –Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The bottle filling stations in schools encourage staff and students to use refillable water bottles to help reduce the use of singleuse plastic bottles and keep more plastic waste out of landfills.

Drug Take Back Day nets over 3,200 pounds of medication

ELYRIA — Lorain

County’s Drug Take Back Day netted more than a ton of prescription and over-the-counter medication turned in at local police departments.

April 22’s unofficial count was just shy of 3,200 pounds from law enforcement agencies throughout the county, Lorain County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Don Barker said. That total didn’t include 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 singlethread 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 everything collected from North Ridgeville Police. Police departments and Columbia fire opened their doors from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, taking whatever medications were dropped off, no questions asked. Medications were boxed by each department, weighed by the Sheriff’s Office and will be turned over to Drug Enforcement Administration for disposal. 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. today.

For more information, email holocaustprogram@ gmail.com.

440-329-7122

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Gun violence summit comes to N. Ridgeville

NORTH RIDGEVILLE

— More than 250 students from close to 40 schools gathered at the North Ridgeville Academic Center for the fifth annual National SAVE Promise Club Youth Summit April 22, looking to address gun violence in their communities.

The program, organized by high schoolers from across the country, featured several speakers addressing gun violence, school shootings and student activism in its wake, including Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, 2019 Saugus High School shooting survivor Mia Tretta and Sandy Hook Promise co-founders Mark Barden and Nicole Hockley.

Recently reinstated, Pearson was once a member of the Sandy Hook Promise National Youth Advisory Board.

Looking out at those gathered in the Academic Center’s cafeteria, he was happy to be there, reminded there are people dedicated to ending gun violence.

“This doesn’t happen without ya’ll showing up and marching and speaking and writing letters and sending phone calls,” he said. “Your voice matters and when you engage in the process, it matters.”

Pearson, alongside Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, were expelled from the Tennessee Statehouse after leading a gun control protest on the House floor following a shooting at a Nashville school which left three students and three staff members dead. Fellow Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson, who also protested, was spared expulsion by one vote.

Pearson and Jones have both been reinstated. And since their reinstatement, Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is set to call a special session to address gun reform and public safety. He also signed an executive order earlier this month to tighten the state’s background check process. He compared the youths who protested in the Tennessee Statehouse, and those gathered at Saturday’s summit, to the children who marched in the civil rights movement.

“It gives so much hope that from Memphis to Milwaukee, New Town to Nashville, Charlotte to Atlanta, LA to Lexington we are building this movement,” he said. “And right now it is being built in such a way that the nation has to respond. Even in places where we didn’t expect the nation to respond — like the South — even in places where we didn’t expect governors to respond — like Tennessee. … We are changing the narrative.”

That change is something Gary Weart, co-founder of Students Against Violence Everywhere, is determined to see come to fruition.

Weart and Dawne Orange co-founded SAVE 34 years ago after Orange’s son, Alex, was shot and killed at a party when students from a rival school showed up looking for trouble.

The 17-year-old was a very, very special person, Weart said, having had the young man as a student in his home room for nearly two years, in his World History class and on the football team he helped coach.

“Alex Orange was not my first student in my 15th year in teaching that I lost,” Weart said. “Alex was my eighth … and before I finished a 42-year career, it went up to 14 students. That’s 14 too many. It cannot keep happening.”

But Weart hasn’t lost hope in the “wind of change” that started with Alex’s friends and family in 1989, and have continued with the students involved in today’s protests and conversation surrounding gun violence.

Mia Tretta, a senior at Saugust High School in Santa Clarita, California, became an activist after she was shot her freshman year, and her best friend, Dominic Blackwell, was killed.

“Things were normal, until they weren’t,” she said.

“As we talked and joked, our laughter was interrupted by a bang, followed by several more.”

She, and four others, were shot by a 16-year-old student they didn’t know, an incident that left “a scar on my stomach from a bullet, and a hole in my heart from the constant ache of losing my childhood and my best friend,” she said.

Since then, her advocacy has been a way to keep Dominic’s memory alive, and hopefully save the lives of others, she said.

“I think a lot of people overlook us as the youth voice, but you being here shows that you refuse to be overlooked,” she said. “And that is so inspiring to me.”

Sandy Hook Promise cofounders Mark Barden and Nicole Hockley also didn’t expect to be activists, until their children’s lives were cut short.

Barden and Hockley didn’t know each other when their sons were killed at a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. But their sons did, Hockley said.

Barden’s son, Daniel, was a boy drawn to helping others — picking up worms from the pavement and carefully placing them in the grass, seeking out classmates who may be left sitting alone.

Hockley’s son, Dylan, was autistic and not very verbal.

The pair had met in kindergarten and made a connection, she said.

“That connection is so critical and that’s what all of you are doing is creating those connections with each other,” she said.

Barden said he saw Daniel’s spirit of kindness and compassion in the young people at Saturday’s summit, and pledged to stand with them while they work to shift the culture around gun violence — knowing his son’s spirit is with them as well.

For more information on the group’s advocacy, visit sandyhookpromise.org.