Kirkus calls FOUR RED SWEATERS by Lucy Adlington an “engrossing account” of “wartime horrors, and resilience, through cherished garments”
FOUR RED SWEATERS
Powerful True Stories of Women and the Holocaust
Author: Lucy Adlington
Review Issue Date: March 1, 2025
Online Publish Date: January 29, 2025
Publisher:Harper/HarperCollins
Pages: 352
Price ( Paperback ): $19.99
Publication Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN ( Paperback ): 9780063375130
Section: NonFictionFour Jewish girls and their sorrowful connection.
British novelist and clothes historian Adlington, author of The Dressmakers of Auschwitz, begins her engrossing account with a portrait of a happy Jewish family in 1938 Berlin. Few readers will doubt that unspeakable horrors await them, but there remains a readership for such stories, and Adlington tells hers with skill. None of Adlington’s subjects knew the other, yet all acquired a red sweater that symbolizes their shared experience. Western democracies deplored Nazi abuse of Jews; all, however, enforced strict immigration laws, accepting only small numbers who had money or jobs awaiting them. An exception occurred when activists persuaded Britain to accept children. There followed the famous Kindertransport, when nearly 10,000 arrived in 1938-39. A bill for a similar plan was introduced in the U.S. Congress but was defeated. Adlington describes Kindertransport member Jochewet (“Jock”) Heidenstein, age 12, who arrived in 1938; two sisters later joined her. Two brothers remained behind with her family; all were killed. Anita Lasker, a 12-year-old from a musical family, traveled from Breslau to Berlin in 1938 to take cello lessons. Later sent to Auschwitz, she became a member of its women’s orchestra and survived. Chana Zumerkorn, daughter of a shoemaker in Lodz, Poland, was 19 when the Germans invaded. Ejected from their home, the family was crammed into the Lodz ghetto, where she labored as a knitter, until 1942, when all were shipped to the Chelmno camp and killed. Regina Feldman’s family was sent to the Sobibor extermination camp in 1942; chosen to labor in a knitting workshop, Regina was the only family member not killed on arrival. Amazingly, in October 1943, Sobibor’s prisoners rebelled; many, including Regina, broke out and survived.
Tracking wartime horrors, and resilience, through cherished garments.