Seamstresses of Auschwitz

The True Story of Women Who Sewed to Survive the Holocaust

At the height of the Holocaust, twenty-five young prisoners of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp—mostly Jewish women and girls—were selected to work in a special salon to design, cut, and sew clothes for elite Nazi women. They hoped that this work would save them from the gas chambers.

Founded by Hedwig Höss, the wife of the camp commandant, the atelier was staffed by the wives of guards and SS officers. Here, the seamstresses produced high-quality clothing for the social events of Berlin’s authorities in Auschwitz and for the high society ladies of Nazi Berlin.