#berta berkovich kohut

[eretzyisrael]

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.

On February 14, Berta Berkovich Kohút — the “sewing circle’s” last survivor — died of COVID-related complications. She would have been 100 years old later this year, according to her eldest son, Tom Areton.

“She was the last living person from among these dressmakers,” Areton told The Times of Israel. “She was in Auschwitz for 1,000 days and she always said she could have died 1,000 times each of those days.”

The story of “Betka” Kohút and the unique workshop will be told in an upcoming book, “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz,” written by Lucy Adlington. Described as “the true story of the women who sewed to survive,” the book includes content from the author’s three-day interview with Kohút in 2019.

#auschwitz #dressmakers #holocaust #berta berkovich kohut #dressmakers of auschwitz #lucy adlington