BOOK REVIEW: THE DRESSMAKERS OF AUSCHWITZ

One of the most remarkable books I have read recently is Lucy Adlington’s The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: the true story of the women who sewed to survive. It covers a relatively unknown aspect of the Second World War that needs to be told.

For most informed people, the name Auschwitz is synonymous with the horrors of what we have learned about the Holocaust and, over time, we have become familiar with the narration of the mass deportation of Jews to camps, such as Auschwitz, where they were exterminated in their tens of thousands – largely through the use of gas chambers, although many were shot or literally worked to death – barely living anyway on the inadequate food they were provided with.

Some of you may recall watching the film Schindler’s List, which portrayed so well the prevailing callous attitude of camp guards who quickly learned to regard the…