User:Patruss5/Margaret Werner Tobien

Margaret Werner Tobien (1921–1997) was an American woman who survived imprisonment in a gulag, a Siberian labor camp of Stalinist Russia. She escaped and became a mother to Karl Tobien, who later wrote Dancing Under the Red Star about her experience.

Early life

Tobien was born in 1921 near Detroit, Michigan. Her father worked for Ford Motor Company. When she was 10, Ford moved its location to Russia, and her father was transferred along with some 450 employees from 1930 to 1932. This gave her father job security which was scarce in the midst of the Depression.

In 1938, when she was 17, Tobien's father was arrested and imprisoned in Russia after being convicted on trumped-up charges of treason. Her father passed away soon after arriving at the camp. Left to survive in the Soviet regime, Tobien and her mother faced years of poverty and near starvation.

It already was a struggle for Tobien and her mother to survive. They made it through years of sorrow, only to then both be accused of the same charges her father faced.

Imprisonment

In 1943 Tobien was accused of espionage and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in Stalin's gulag.

The prison went on for 33 years. The death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 severally weakened the Gulag system. But not until 1987, when the grandson of Gulag victims, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev officially began to completely eliminate Gulag camps. The work was harsh and people cut their arms off to avoid the labor. The living conditions killed many prisoners were killed. Tobien and many women found ways to adjust to the cruel conditions they were forced to live through. Many women were sentenced to prison under Article 58, in which their only crime was being 'Wives of enemies of the people'.

Tobien is the only American woman to have survived the harsh imprisonment lifestyle. She was given protection from a respected criminal in the Gulag after teaching him how to read. Her and her mother Elisabeth were still able to communicate even with harsh camp regulations. This was possible through the work of her friends in the Siberian camp, who managed to arrange her mother and Elizabeth meeting in an nearby outhouse for a brief period of time. It is said that it was her mother's love that alive and optimistic when so many other inmates died. After, exhibiting office skills that would prove useful in the camp, she was able to avoid some of the hard labor. Margaret felt what she called "the hand of God" preserving her.

Personal life

After her release from prison, Margaret married a German recently released from the Gulag, Gunter Tobien. Their son, Karl Tobien, was born in 1956 just outside the gulag. He was five years old when he, his mother, and his grandmother returned to the US. Margaret's skill in drawing came to her benefit once again when it gave her the ability to support her family, after prison. She drew designs for electronic firms in both Germany and the U.S.

In 1991 Tobien converted to evangelical Christianity.

As Karl grew older he wanted to know about his mother's past. She told him about the cruel conditions she faced. Karl later wrote Dancing Under the Red Star, which told his mother's story.