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  • The Dressmakers of Auschwitz

  • The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive
  • By: Lucy Adlington
  • Narrated by: Lucy Adlington
  • Length: 12 hrs
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (67 ratings)
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The Dressmakers of Auschwitz

By: Lucy Adlington
Narrated by: Lucy Adlington
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Summary

The 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, 25 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 patronised 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Lucy Adlington (P)2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about The Dressmakers of Auschwitz

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*Horrific*

**4.5 Stars**

I was very intrigued to learn about these brave women who were not only in a concentration camp but they lived virtually one stitch at a time in the hope their lives would be spared by making clothes mainly to dress the SS functions but for the wives and those that money was no object. It was distasteful given the conditions the women had to deal with and the very same people had no compunction watching the women being marched away to their death and committing all manner of unspeakable violence against them.

The Author Lucy Adlington is also a historian and she researched and managed to get an interview with the last surviving seamstress Bracha Kohút at the time of the interview she was 98. There is a section where Lucy mentions that everything she had researched the Bracha lived through. There were 25 women chosen to sew in the Fashion workshop crassly called ‘Upper Tailoring Studio’ whilst the recipients received beautifully tailored garments to wear, the women suffered.

It was a hard read and I found myself on Google looking it up, such an unimaginable true story that Lucy does not gloss over the details and it also highlights the resilience of the women each knowing that each day could be their last.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Gripping

I found this book absolutely gripping from start to finish. at times I found it distressing to learn of what went on inside the camps and to hear the comments of former neighbors was also upsetting. I think this book should be essential reading so we learn and never forget or repeat

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    5 out of 5 stars
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just a great story

I would recommend this book. I didn't wont it to finish. you forgot who hard it was for them

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A factual history of before, during and following internment in Auschwitz of the dressmakers

a well written, well investigated telling of the dressmakers of Auschwitz. Tough to listen to but a history of love, toughness, determination and friendship. Friendship that would last some 70+ years.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Dressmakers of Auschwitz

Important and interesting book, but too often the writer stopped telling the story and instead concentrated endlessly in describing and listing the atrocities.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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There are no words

What a fascinating, heartbreaking, inspiring and humbling book. A much needed diary of how women fought and survived ‘man’s inhumanity to man”.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Devastating, beautiful

This book, more than any other I’ve read before, evinces the horror and desolation of what the Jewish people endured… knowing that one can never come anywhere close to understanding.
These women - from both sides - will stay with me.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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An emotive and powerful story

This affective tale reminds us of those ordinary human evils that we must never forget nor allow to flourish today. The cruel sights scents and textures of othering prejudice brings it home to readers how extreme the nazi regime became in such a short time.
It begins to explain how so many ordinary folk were led into becoming shameless perpetrators and how a few brave souls were not ground down and endeavoured to help and encourage each other. It evoked in me an amazing awe and respect for those who endured witnessed and survived the depths of depravity by making beautiful things.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting story

It’s a very powerful story but not very well written and the narrator was boring.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Unspeakably great story and extraordinary detail

This book is an absolute must read for anyone who makes clothing. It was wonderful to hear it read by the author and she does a magnificent job of bringing together the stories of these women.

There are a few editing errors sprinkled throughout the book where the same passage is repeated. But overall the performance is really good and the recording is clear.

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