A REVIEW OF CELEBRATED AUTHOR AND HISTORIAN’S TALK AT THE GEORGIAN THEATRE ROYAL.

Earlier this summer, Richmond Sixth Form College student Jaime Gilpin wrote a blog introducing the book ‘The Dressmakers of Auschwitz’ by renowned author and historian Lucy Adlington. This was in anticipation of a visit and talk by the author at the Georgian Theatre Royal as part of the Richmond Walking and Book Festival.

Lucy Adlington’s talk took place recently. Jaime attended the event and has written a detailed and perceptive review – read on below…

Fashion historian Lucy Adlington, known for her love of all things vintage took to the stage of the Georgian Theatre Royal as part of the annual Richmond Walking and Book Festival to discuss her book “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz” (2021). The book tells the story of twenty five Jewish women in Auschwitz-Birkenau who were selected to create fashionable clothing for Nazi Germany’s elite women. These women worked in the “Obere Nähstube” (“upper tailoring studio”) which had been established by Hedwig Höss (wife of the commandant) and seemed to be the women’s best chance at survival.  

The evening began with Adlington telling us how her 2021 book, listed on the New York Times bestseller list, “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz” came to be. In response to her novel “The Red Ribbon” (2017) which told the story of a young dressmaker in the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau, Adlington explained how she had received emails from various relatives of the actual dressmakers in Auschwitz. Through this, Adlington was able to get in contact and was then fortunate to meet the last surviving dressmaker, Bracha Kohut, in 2019.

Adlington then went on to describe the lives of women like Bracha and others such as Hunya Storch who would all eventually find themselves working night and day in the ‘upper tailoring studios’ at Auschwitz. Accompanied with pictures of these women, Adlington did an incredible job of portraying each of these women as individuals, not letting the fact that they were victims of the holocaust define them. Including heartwarming anecdotes of these women’s lives growing up before the rise of the Third Reich had the audience surprisingly smiling, making the description of their time as prisoners all the more harrowing. 

On stage Adlington was accompanied with an array of artefacts. Amongst these were garments and fashion magazines from the 1940’s, highlighting trends of the time, which Adlington was able to talk about in vast detail. Within her collection were three garments: a dress, a coat and a tie, all of which were labelled with “ADEFA” which stood for Federation of German-Aryan Manufacturers of the Clothing Industry, highlighting how the rise in anti-semitism brought about by the Nazis was even reflected in the clothing people wore. 

Upon reaching the end of the first half of her talk before a brief interval, Adlington left us with the poignant image of a red cattle cart into which the dressmakers would have been put, about to make the most horrific journey of their entire lives. This journey would take them to what can only be described as hell on earth. This left many audience members, including myself, eager to find out more.

In the second half we were introduced to the strong willed Marta Fuchs who was put in charge of the running of the salon and through this managed to save the lives of numerous women by getting them jobs. Here, these women and young girls made garments for the Kommandant’s wife, Hedwig Hoss, which then expanded to making clothing for elite Nazi women across Germany. Adlington really made sure to stress how crucial the friendship formed between these women was and how it was this that gave them hope and motivation to keep on surviving. These women were truly sewing to survive. 

After the event, Adlington had her book on sale and took part in a book signing. Whilst waiting for their books to be signed, it was obvious that the audience had enjoyed an informative night, praising Adlington for her lack of notes and exploring an area of which many may consider a relatively unknown part of World War two history.

Thank you to Jaime for taking the time and effort to write the review. We wish her all the best as she continues into her final year of studies at Richmond Sixth Form College.