Sewing for survival: The last of Auschwitz’s forgotten ‘dressmakers’ dies

For a group of 40 seamstresses imprisoned at Auschwitz, the ability to create high-end fashion meant the difference between life and death.

Amid the horror of the Holocaust, starting in 1943, a select group of hand-picked women were segregated from their peers and set up in a workshop to create haute couture for the wives of Nazi camp officers. Their fame spread and wives from as far away as Berlin soon found themselves on a six-month waiting list for the Auschwitz seamstresses’ garments.