PAGE 12A
By Rafael Medoff
WASHINGTON (JTA)--
Was the Jewish "lady tailor"
who ran a Prague dressmak-
ing shop a potential Nazi spy?
The Roosevelt administration
apparently thought so.
The Jewish Museum Mil-
waukee recently opened a
remarkable exhibit about the
late Hedy Strnad, a Jewish-
Czech dressmaker who with
her husband, Paul, attempted
to immigrate to the United
States on the eve of the Ho-
locaust.
The exhibit has its roots
in a December 1939 letter
sent by Paul to his cousins
in Milwaukee asking them
to help seek permission for
HERITAGE FLORIDA JEWISH NEWS, OCTOBER 24, 2014
The Jewish dressmalser FDR turned away
ior," as Rohaczek described
her--sometimes had her
seamstresses sew clothes for
Rohaczek's dolls.
The directors of the Mil-
waukee museum came up
with an innovative way to
remember the Strnads: enlist-
ing the costume makers from
the Milwaukee Repertory The-
ater to create clothing based
on Hedy's sketches.
The resulting exhibit,
'Stitching History from the
Holocaust," is a powerful and
moving way to introduce an
individual, personal dimen-
sion to Holocaust remem-
brance. It features eight
outfits--among them fit-
ted blouses and blazers, paired
with A-line skirts, and knee-
him and his wife to come to
America. Paul enclosed eight
of Hedy's clothing design
sketches. He knew the U.S.
authorities would turn away
refugees who might have
trouble finding employment;
Hedy's sketches demonstrated
her professional skills.
Testimony submitted to Yad
Vashem, Israel's Holocaust
museum, by the Strnads'
niece, Brigitte Rohaczek,
provided the Milwaukee ex-
hibit designers with additional
information. She shared
poignant memories of her
vivacious Aunt Hedy--her
real name was Hedwig--
and the dressmaking shop
she owned and operated in
Prague. Hedy--a "lady tai-
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length dresses that cinched
at the waist.
Why were the Strnads de-
nied admission to the United
States? America's immigra-
tion laws at the time made it
difficult for refugees such as
the Strnads to enter, and the
way the Roosevelt administra-
tion implemented those laws
made it even harder.
Franklin Roosevelt's State
Department piled on extra
requirements and bureau-
cratic obstacles. In an internal
memo in 1940, Assistant
Secretary of State Breckin-
ridge Long sketched out his
department's policy to "delay
and effectively stop" refu-
gee immigration by putting
"every obstacle in the way,"
such as requiring additional
documents and resorting to
"various administrative de-
vices which would postpone
and postpone the granting of
the visas."
The annual quota of immi-
grants from CzeChoslovakia
was small--just 2,874 but
even that quota was not filled
in any year during FDR's 12
years in office.
In 1940, the year the Strna-
ds wanted to immigrate, the
Czech quota was only 68
percent filled; nearly 1,000
quota places sat unused. Even
though there was room in the
quota, and even though He@
was a successful business-
woman and the couple had
relatives in the United States,
the Strnads' applications were
turned down.
At the same time the
Strnads were seeking a haven,
refugee advocates were trying
to convince the Roosevelt
administration to permit
European Jews to settle in
areas that were at the time
U.S. territories but not states,
such as the Virgin Islands and
Alaska.
After Kristallnacht in No-
vember 1938, the governor
and legislative assembly of the
Virgin Islands offered to open
its doors to Jewish refugees,
but Roosevelt personally
blocked the proposal.
In public and private state-
ments, FDR claimed that Nazi
spies might sneak into Amer-
ica disguised as refugees. U.S.
officials imagined that if spies
reached the Virgin Islands, it
would put them within easy
reach of the mainland United
States. (No Nazi spies were
ever discovered among the few
Jewish refugees who were let
into the country.)
As for proposals to settle
Jews in Alaska, Interior Sec-
retary Harold Ickes Jr. noted
Jewish Museum Milwaukee
Paul and Hedy Strnad were rejected in their efforts to seek
safe haven in the United States from Czechoslovakia on the
eve of the Holocaust.
in his diary that Roosevelt said
he would support the plan only
if no more than 10 percent of
the settlers were Jews--so
as "to avoid the undoubted
criticism that we would be
subjected to if there were an
undue proportion of Jews,"
FDR explained.
Shortly after, the adminis-
tration pushed through legis-
lation that made it even more
difficult for Jewish refugees
to qualify for U.S. visas. The
"close relatives" edict, as it
was called, barred the entry of
anyonewho had close relatives
in Europe. The theorywas that
the Nazis might take their
relatives hostage in order to
force them to become spies for
Hitler. An interesting theory,
but there was no evidence to
substantiate it,
With all doors shut, the fate
of Paul and Hedy--and count-
less other Jewish refugees--
was sea led. They were sent first
to the Terezin concentration
camp, an hour north Of Prague.
Then they were deported to the
Warsaw Ghetto.
What exactly happened
next is unclear. They may have
been murdered in Warsaw, or
they may have been deported,
along with the other Jews
of Warsaw, to the Treblinka
death camp and perished
there.
The "Stitching History"
exhibit, open through Feb.
28, is a fitting tribute to a life
taken too soon. It is also a sad
reminder of a time when the
U.S. government regarded
Jewish refugees--even a
lady tailor from Prague--as
a danger.
Rafael Medoff is director of
The DavidS. Wyman Institute
for Holocaust Studies.
Jewish Museum Milwaukee
Designs by Hedy Strnad displayed at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee exhibit.
