The Dressmakers of Auschwitz

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmakers of Auschwitz tells the true stories of four Jewish girls during the Holocaust, strangers whose lives were unknowingly linked by everyday garments in this unforgettable work of WWII history, revealing how the ordinary can connect us in extraordinary ways.Jock Heidenstein, Anita Lasker, Chana Zumerkorn, and Regina Feldman all faced the Holocaust in different ways. While they did not know each other—in fact had never met—each had a red sweater that would play a major part in their lives. In this absorbing and deeply moving account, award-winning clothes historian Lucy Adlington documents their stories, knitting together the experiences that fragmented their families and their lives.Adlington immortalizes these young women whose resilience, skills, strength, and kindness accompanied them through the darkest events in human history. A powerful reminder of the suffering they endured and a celebration of courage, love, and tenacity, this moving piece of narrative nonfiction illuminates moments long lost to history, now pieced back together by a simple garment.Four Red Sweaters is illustrated with more than two dozen black-and-white images throughout.Based on meticulous research, this powerful work of Jewish history pieces together four remarkable lives that were unknowingly intertwined:- Kindertransport Journey: Follow Jock Heidenstein's escape from Nazi Berlin to England, clutching a suitcase containing the red sweater that tied her to the family she was forced to leave behind.- The Auschwitz Orchestra: Discover how Anita Lasker, a talented cellist, survived Auschwitz by playing in the camp's infamous women's orchestra, a life saved by music in a place of unimaginable horror.- Ghetto Resistance: Witness Chana Zumerkorn's struggle in the Lodz ghetto, where knitting became an act of survival, and gifting her own red sweater to her brother became an act of enduring love.- The Sobibor Uprising: Uncover the story of Regina Feldman, forced to knit for SS officers in the Sobibor extermination camp, who became one of the few to survive the camp's daring and historic mass escape.

'Captivates, inspires and ultimately enriches' Heather Morris, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz<BR><BR>Nominated for the CILIP CARNEGIE MEDAL 2019<BR><BR>Rose, Ella, Mina and Carla. In another life we might all have been friends together. But this was Birchwood.<BR><BR>For fans of The Diary of Anne Frank and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.<BR><BR>As fourteen-year-old Ella begins her first day at work she steps into a world of silks, seams, scissors, pins, hems and trimmings. She is a dressmaker, but this is no ordinary sewing workshop. Hers are no ordinary clients.<BR><BR>Ella has joined the seamstresses of Birkenau-Auschwitz, as readers may recognise it. Every dress she makes could mean the difference between life and death. And this place is all about survival.<BR><BR>Ella seeks refuge from this reality, and from haunting memories, in her work and in the world of fashion and fabrics. She is faced with painful decisions about how far she is prepared to go to survive. Is her love of clothes and creativity nothing more than collaboration with her captors, or is it a means of staying alive? Will she fight for herself alone, or will she trust the importance of an ever-deepening friendship with Rose?<BR><BR>One thing weaves through the colours of couture gowns and camp mud - a red ribbon, given to Ella as a symbol of hope.