The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive

THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 2022, 12 PM

Zoom Presentation*

Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies  

  The Dressmakers of Auschwitz:

The True Story of the Women

Who Sewed to Survive

  LUCY ADLINGTON    

The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive, powerfully chronicles the stories of the women who used their sewing skills to survive the Holocaust, stitching beautiful clothes in an extraordinary fashion workshop within the Auschwitz concentration camp. 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, Lucy Adlington exposes the greed, cruelty, and hypocrisy of the Third Reich and offers a fresh look at a little-known chapter of the Second World War and the Holocaust.

This event is sponsored by the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford. It is cosponsored by the Presidents' College at the University of Hartford and the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University of Connecticut.

*Registration Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAod-ygqjgvEtWgfHn4QAZxrvgBISRRYATV