ASHLAND — Dorothea Schade spent her 100th birthday surrounded by friends and family who travelled from across Ohio and even surrounding states to be with her.
Schade is a mother to three, a grandmother to 11 and a great grandmother to 18, all whom affectionately refer to her as “Oma,” which means grandma in German.
German is Schade’s native language, which she learned as a descendant of Saxony Germany growing up in the small village of Saschiz, or Keisd in German, just outside of Transylvania, Romania.
In her century of life, Schade survived being abducted from her village to work in a Soviet Union prison camp, moved to Hamburg, Germany, to start a family, immigrated to America to continue raising that family and eventually settled in Perrysville.
Rachel Delaney, regional director for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and Schade’s granddaughter, presented a proclamation from Attorney General Dave Yost honoring Schade.
“Whereas Dorothea’s unwavering devotion to her Savior, her family and her community has been evident throughout her century of life, blessing generations with her kindness and love,” the proclamation read.
“Therefore, as Attorney General of the state of Ohio, it is my honor to recognize and celebrate Dorothea Schade on her 100th birthday with gratitude for her remarkable life and enduring legacy,”
Even before Schade was abducted from her home when she was 19, she dreamed of immigrating to America and starting a family there.
Surviving Soviet gulags
As reparations for Romania allying with the Axis Powers and participating in the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Soviet officials and Soviet Secret Police took prisoners to work in gulags during the aftermath of World War II.
Gulags were forced-labor camps, holding millions of prisoners, including common criminals, political enemies, intellects deemed a threat to society under Joseph Stalin’s rule and people like Schade, who lived quietly in a country that sided against the Soviets in the war.
In 1945, Schade was taken away on train, along with the other young people in her village to serve a five-year sentence in a coal-mining gulag in the Donbas region, in present day Ukraine.
Her life there was nothing short of a horror story.
“It was horrific conditions,” Schade’s daughter, Linda Delaney said.
Delaney shared her mother’s stories on her behalf because Schade has dementia.
Similar to the concentration camps the Jews and other ethnic groups were freed from, gulag prisoners were forced to work long hours of hard labor during harsh winters in thin, tattered clothes.
Prisoners lived in crowded barracks, many slowly starving to death because the meals of so-called soup and stale bread were unsustainable, according to gulaghistory.org.
Despite the inhumane conditions, Schade persevered, even meeting her husband and father to her children there, Gerhard Schade, who was a prisoner because he was a German soldier.
He saved her life once: pushing her out of the way of a coal cart flying down the tracks.
“People respected her strength. She had a work ethic that I have never seen in anyone else, and integrity out the wazoo. They were very generous, no victim mentality,” Delaney said.
They got married while at the camp, which saved Schade from a fate of returning to then communist-controlled Romania.
Life after the gulag, coming to America
She returned to Germany with her new husband at 25. They lived there for five years, raising two children before moving to America in 1955 and having their third child.
They ended up in Ohio because Schade’s aunt lived in Cleveland, and per the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, immigrants needed a U.S. citizen to sponsor them, which meant providing a home and job.
Eventually, they settled in Parma to raise their family, When the kids were grown up, they built a home on a farm in Perrysville in 1975. They lived there until Gerhard Schade died 10 years ago. Dorothea Schade moved to Brethren Care Village two years ago.
“Everybody loves my mother, that woman is so beloved by many,” Delaney said.
When Schade left Europe, she left behind her family, which she had not seen since she was taken to the gulag at 19.
The family took a trip to visit Schade’s siblings, who still lived in Saschiz, Romania, in the late 1960s. After Delaney saw her mom’s family living in poverty, she knew she had to do something to help them.
“It was gut-wrenching to see. When we got back, I could not stop crying,” she said.
So, Delaney wrote a letter to President Richard Nixon, asking if he could help her family leave Romania. Nixon administration officials wrote back, and after Schade paid money for their emigration, his officials helped coordinate their relocation to Germany.
Schade’s life in Perrysville was what she always hoped for: a strong family, a close-knit community and free of the struggles she endured in Europe.
Schade and her husband were well-known, active members of St. John Lutheran Church in Perrysville, where their son, Dieter Gerhard Schade is the pastor.
“She lived each day with a servant’s heart, always putting others first and sharing Christ’s love through her kindness and generosity,” Delaney said.
What Schade will be remembered for
Schade’s 100th birthday brought together family members who are often not in the same room together, all sharing life stories and memories of Oma.
Deiter Schade, Dorothea’s oldest son, said he learned the importance of hard work from his parents.
“She was feisty,” he said.
“When asked, ‘what your greatest accomplishment is,’ she said her family. I grew up most of my life going to her farm on weekends, spending a lot of time with her there. I got to see, not only did she talk about hard work, but that’s the legacy she left behind,” her granddaughter Delaney said.
Two of Schade’s great granddaughters shared they remember Schade’s baking: she always had plates of cookies waiting for them when they came to visit.