Trude Arm

MADISON-Trude Arm passed April 24, 2014 at Agrace Hospice near Madison, Wisconsin at the age of 93.
Born on August 18, 1920 in Vienna, Austria, Trude's family lived a very modest lifestyle, yet her childhood was steeped in the rich beauty and culture of Vienna. It was an upbringing she carried with her always and lovingly shared with all her family. Unwilling to deny her Judaism, Trude, then a teenager, fled her beloved home and family to escape the Nazi forces marching into Austria and the impending Holocaust. As a refugee and through the help of sympathetic organizations and people, Trude followed a route that took her from Italy to Switzerland and then Portugal. There she boarded a small boat with other refugees headed to North America. Turned away at Ellis Island, their boat kept traveling south and the group eventually resettled in a small kibbutz style cooperative built with other refugees in Sosua, Dominican Republic. There Trude met her love, Fritz Arm, another survivor also from Vienna, who arrived in Sosua a year after her; they were blessed with a long and loving marriage. After 7 years, the young couple, now a family with 2yr old daughter Rita, emigrated to the United States eventually settling in Madison, where their son Ron was born in 1948.
During the next 66 years, Trude raised and tended to her family. At first living in a farmhouse attic just outside of town then moving to a rented flat in Madison's, now heralded Greenbush neighborhood. There the family lived and had a small drygoods store, Arm's Wearing and Apparrel. On the heels of urban renewal and rehab of "The Bush", the family moved, buying their first home and relocating to Madison's west side. Trude was a working mother nearly all her life. She worked at the early State Street Montgomery Wards, at Manchester's downtown and later at their Westgate store. Due to job relocation a few years were spent in Minneapolis and then she and her husband Fritz returned to Madison at retirement. In her eighties, she again returned to work, this time at The Company Store.
Family meant everything to Trude. To her last able days, she took loving care of her grandchildren and great grandchildren who called her "Omi." She still enjoyed their visits during her last years at Capitol Lakes and her final week at Agrace Hospice.
To the end, many people described Trude as stoic, but when you came to understand the sparkle in her eyes, you realized it was not stoic suffering you were witnessing, but a brilliant courage that gave her life and light. It was something she shared by example with the people she loved.
Trude is preceded in death by her mother, Franziska (nee Stolasczewicz), her father Ernst Spitz, her beloved husband Fritz Arm, many aunts, cousins and dear friends.
Trude is survived by: her dear sister, Herta Schoepps of Albuquerque, NM, her cousin, Curtis Brown of Neenah, WI, her children; Rita Arm, Ron Arm, and Ron's wife Linda Jameson, all of Madison; her grandchildren Lisa Schweiger of Webster Groves, MO, Rick Arm and his wife Becky of DeForest, Matthew Arm of Minnesota and Ben Arm of Madison; her great grandchildren Kirsten, Eric, Brittany, Keara, and Gracie, her nieces; Evelyn, Peggy and Linda. She is also survived by special family friend Sarah and many loving cousins in-law around the world.
The family wishes to thank all the many people who helped make Trude's life richer by their presence. The Jewish Community of Madison in its many forms; the congregation of Temple Beth El, Jewish Social Services, L'Chaim, gatherings of friends- all helped to welcome Trude and her family into the community at such an important time in her life and helped make her new life in Madison so meaningful, filled with friends and good memories lasting through all the years of her life here. Trude would want to say goodbye, as well, to her longtime neighbors on Crawford Drive and her many fine co-workers and customers.
The family wishes to thank all her caregivers and especially, in recent years, Capitol Lakes, Meriter Hospital (especially the Palliative Care Team), and, in the last week of her life, the wonderful folks at Agrace Hospice.
A funeral service will be held at CRESS FUNERAL HOME, 3610 Speedway Road, Madison, on Monday, April 28, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. with Rabbi Jonathan Biatch presiding. Burial will take place at Forest Hill Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests you make contributions to Jewish Social Services of Madison, Agrace Hospice of Fitchburg and good organizations serving refugees around the world.