The Dressmakers of Auschwitz

A powerful true story of survival, this chronicle of the women who used their sewing skills to survive the Holocaust tells of 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 Holocaust 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.

This unforgettable work of Holocaust history reveals:

• Auschwitz Concentration Camp: The story of the Upper Tailoring Studio, an unbelievable fashion salon founded by the commandant’s wife, Hedwig Höss, in the heart of the death camp.
• Women in the Holocaust: The lives of twenty-five Jewish women and girls who used their needles not just to sew couture for Nazi wives, but to weave together a community of survival.
• Jewish History: A narrative built on meticulous research and interviews with the last living dressmaker, capturing the bonds of family and friendship that sustained them.
• Greed and Hypocrisy: An exposé of the cruelty of the Nazi elite, who patronized the salon for high-fashion garments while orchestrating the very persecution the women sought to escape.