The Dressmakers of Auschwitz, Lucy Adlington
The Dressmakers of Auschwitz, Lucy Adlington
26 Rating(s)
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The Dressmakers of Auschwitz
The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive

Author: Lucy Adlington

Narrator: Lucy Adlington

Unabridged: 12 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 09/14/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

A powerful chronicle of the women who used their sewing skills to survive the Holocaust, stitching beautiful clothes at an extraordinary fashion workshop created within one of the most notorious WWII death camps. 
At the height of the Holocaust twenty-five young inmates of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp—mainly Jewish women and girls—were selected to design, cut, and sew beautiful fashions for elite Nazi women in a dedicated salon. It was work that they hoped would spare them from the gas chambers. This fashion workshop—called the Upper Tailoring Studio—was established by Hedwig Höss, the camp commandant’s wife, and patronized by the wives of SS guards and officers. Here, the dressmakers produced high-quality garments for SS social functions in Auschwitz, and for ladies from Nazi Berlin’s upper crust. Drawing on diverse sources—including interviews with the last surviving seamstress—The Dressmakers of Auschwitz follows the fates of these brave women. Their bonds of family and friendship not only helped them endure persecution, but also to play their part in camp resistance. Weaving the dressmakers’ remarkable experiences within the context of Nazi policies for plunder and exploitation, historian Lucy Adlington exposes the greed, cruelty, and hypocrisy of the Third Reich and offers a fresh look at a little-known chapter of World War II and the Holocaust.Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

About Lucy Adlington

Lucy Adlington is a British novelist and clothes historian with more than twenty years’ experience researching social history and writing fiction and nonfiction. She lives in Yorkshire, England. 


Reviews

Goodreads review by Darryl on November 07, 2021

Stories about the Holocaust in general, Auschwitz in particular need to be told, re-told and told again, lest we forget. Lucy Adlington’s "The Dressmakers of Auschwitz" is another in this ilk, though told from a slightly different angle. It features the seamstresses who were co-opted for the Nazi wa......more

Goodreads review by Ceecee on August 03, 2021

Lucy Adlington shines a spotlight on a little known group of Auschwitz-Birkenau inmates who sewed in a ‘fashion salon’ established by Hedwig Höss, wife of Rudolf the SS Officer in charge of the death camp. Her exhaustive research includes an interview with Mrs Kohut (98) in San Francisco, the last s......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on December 26, 2022

Books on the Holocaust need to continue to be written and read. I was not aware that seamstresses, while in concentration camps, became tailors for Nazi men and women, particularly the wives of senior SS officers. In exchange for twelve hours of non-stop sewing, they received a little soup and the r......more

Goodreads review by Marilyn (not getting notifications) on January 02, 2022

The Dressmakers of Auschwitz:The True Story of the Women who Sewed to Survive by Lucy Adlington was moving, inspiring, enlightening and at the same time so tragic and sad. Of all the books I have read about the Holocaust, I had never known there was a group of female inmates that were made to sew fo......more

Goodreads review by Bionic Jean on April 04, 2025

What do you know about the Holocaust? If your family were involved then the facts might be familiar, but many people—myself included—have a sort of blinkered view. We do not want to know. We do not want to look. The name “Auschwitz” sends a shiver down our spine. Nor were most of those of my age tau......more