Four Red Sweaters: Powerful True Stories of Women and the Holocaust

by Lucy Adlington

The New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmakers of Auschwitz tells the stories of four Jewish girls during the Holocaust, strangers whose lives were unknowingly linked by everyday garments, revealing how the ordinary can connect us in extraordinary ways.

Jock Heidenstein, Anita Lasker, Chana Zumerkorn, and Regina Feldman all faced the Holocaust in different ways. While they did not know each other—in fact had never met—each had a red sweater that would play a major part in their lives. In this absorbing and deeply moving account, award-winning clothes historian Lucy Adlington documents their stories, knitting together the experiences that fragmented their families and their lives.

Adlington immortalizes these young women whose resilience, skills, strength, and kindness accompanied them through the darkest events in human history. A powerful reminder of the suffering they endured and a celebration of courage, love, and tenacity, this moving and original work illuminates moments long lost to history, now pieced back together by a simple garment.

Four Red Sweaters is illustrated with more than two dozen black-and-white images throughout.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Holocaust, World War II, Biography, Historical, Audiobook

1 pages, Audio CD

Published March 18, 2025

About the author

I am fascinated by the stories clothes can tell about the people who made, sold and wore them.
My latest non-fiction book is 'The Dressmakers of Auschwitz', revealing the lives and fates of a remarkable group of mainly Jewish women who sewed to survive in a fashion salon established by the camp commandant's wife. It has been a privilege to bring these stories into the light.
'Women's Lives & Clothes in WW2' is a global overview of the 1940s, drawing on interviews with veterans and items from my vintage collection.
History is also the inspiration for my YA novels, including 'The Red Ribbon', 'Sunmerland', 'The Burning Mountain' and 'The Glittering Eye'
In between all this writing I give presentations on costume history - such a fabulous job: www.historywardrobe.com @historywardrobe
I love switching off with crime thrillers (Lee Child, Agatha Christie...) or with biographies

Reviews

[Orsolya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to preface all Holocaust-content reviews with a disclaimer regarding my personal connection: I am Hungarian Jewish (non-practicing) and my grandfather survived Buchenwald concentration camp with his name forever immortalized in the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.; and on their online database. As the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor; I carry psychological generational trauma and PTSD resulting in my second-hand pain from educating myself on the events and yet having a desperation to absorb every drop. This is certainly hitting even deeper with the current fascist regime/political state of affairs in the United States at the time of this review and with worldwide events in 2025.

For those like me who indulge on Holocaust education; there are countless texts, documentaries, films, primary and secondary accounts/memoirs/biographies to study often uncovering new perspectives/stories/views. One of these angles comes by the way of fashion/textile history. Lucy Adlington, a clothing historian, brought light to the sewing salon at Auschwitz where Jewish girls/women created and sewed luxurious clothing for SS and Nazi wives securing that they live another day in the ‘New York Times’ bestseller, “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz”. Adlington returns with another textile perspective of the Holocaust with, “Four Red Sweaters: Powerful True Stories of Women and the Holocaust”.

“Four Red Sweaters” tells the stories of four women – Jock Heidenstein (and her sisters), Anita Lasker, Chana Zumerkorn and Regina Feldman – through the interwoven thread (pun intended) of each having a red sweater in their Holocaust memories and through knitting. These four heroic women each experienced a different aspect of the Holocaust by way of the Kindertransport , concentration camps, Sobibor death camp and the Sobibor uprising, knitting for Nazis, playing in the concentration camp orchestra, etc; which allows readers to learn various facets, often lesser discussed, of the Holocaust that they may be unfamiliar with while also having the emotional connection of a red sweater. Astoundingly, Adlington brings forth a mountain of information regarding the girls and their lives which is surprising as they were not famous. This is coupled with the history of knitting, clothing and knitwear and their Holocaust/WWII affiliation and impact as a whole infusing “Four Red Sweaters” with a social history ingredient.

Adlington begins “Four Red Sweaters” discussing the knitwear/knitting history of the period before introducing the individual girls helping to create a micro and macro environment while deepening the connection and understanding with readers. This truly brings the girls and the events to life resulting in a visceral, emotive reaction and explores the psychological and sociological connection to knitting/knitwear. Adlington uses a scholarly journalistic approach that is still easy-to-digest even for the novice reader on the subject. That said, “Four Red Sweaters” does occasionally cause confusion in keeping track of all the individuals and their family members as the pages are told alternating their histories. This doesn’t hinder the impact of “Four Red Sweaters” entirely; but it does make the text slightly inconsistent in a cohesive narrative.

“Four Red Sweaters” can naturally be difficult to read in regards to the atrocities experienced by Jews and the subjects of the pages; and especially in relation to the current political sphere of 2025. It is suggested to take breaks in between reading: readers will find themselves crying and in need of tissues. At the same time, it is mandatory that these stories are read and processed by readers. Adlington also dives deep into specific events like the Sobibor death camp and the prisoner uprising and escape with a perfect finesse ratio of educating readers while also creating a truly visual image. The pages of “Four Red Sweaters” are emotive and physically ‘felt’. Adlington melds the pages of “Four Red Sweaters” with tales of other famous Holocaust figures (such as Anne Frank – she also had a red sweater!) reinforcing the narrative theme.

There are sporadic moments within “Four Red Sweaters” that feel slightly forced and as though they are filler material (and repetitive). It is unnecessary for Adlington to have to create additional drama as the material is gut-wrenching and charged with raw emotion on its own merit. “Four Red Sweaters” almost seemed to want to convince readers of the turmoil at these junctures versus letting the content speak for itself.

“Four Red Sweaters” concludes smoothly by circling back to each girl’s personal narrative and the outcomes of their lives (and that of their family members). This leaves “Four Red Sweaters” on a memorable note and with all threads tied.

Adlington peppers “Four Red Sweaters” with photos and illustrations describing each in reference to the text but the problem lies in the black-and-white grayscale inks which hinder the reader from always seeing all the microscopic details of Adlington’s lectures. “Four Red Sweaters” also contains annotated notes and a source list useful for further research.

“Four Red Sweaters” is a unique look at the Holocaust with a riveting and informative format that brings to light the knitting aspect of the Holocaust while also sharing the lives of formidable Jewish women that require to be told into the future. Although “Four Red Sweaters” isn’t as gripping as Adlington's “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz” (in my humble opinion); it is still extraordinary and a must read for all readers interested in WWII, the Holocaust, knitting history and Jewish women’s history.

[Kristina Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a difficult one to read. I had other books on the go at the same time for when it got too heavy. I only read it chapter by chapter. It was beautifully written but very heart breaking. It was a very unique way to tell a story of 4 girls not linked in any way other than being Jewish and owning a red sweater. This Holocaust story was well researched. Very powerful, give it a try! A 5 star rating from me.

[Nidhi Shrivastava · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a teen, I came across a sweater that was so comfortable that I would obsessively wear to the point that it was not wearable anymore. My mom made me this wonderful replica, and it is the most precious clothing that I have.

When I came across Four Red Sweaters, I knew I had to pick up, and once I started, I couldn’t keep it down. As a textile historian, Lucy Adlington offers her readers a chance to know four women - Jock Heidenstein, Anita Laskar, Chana Zumerkon, and Regina Feldman - who were connected via a red sweater. We are given an insight into their lives, the ways the world war 2 and the Holocaust separated them from their families, and how when we leave this world - it is our worldly objects that remain behind. I also learned that Sobibor was also a camp where the internees made textiles, and sourced them from the victims. There were also rabbits that were also reared in the camps for this focus. While Jock finds herself as a child refugee in London, Regina escapes after the Sobibor resistance and finds herself hiding in plain sight in Berlin. This book releases in March and I wholeheartedly recommend it. I can’t rate books that are non-fiction and based on true stories.

Thank you @harperbooks for the gifted arc.

[Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful, beautiful heartbreaking read that is very well researched and lets we the reader become aware of this aspect of the Holocaust and the importance of clothing to the Nazis during WWII.

Brilliant, amazing writing with wonderful characters. 4/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

[Mh Weyler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really a 2 star (would have given 2.5). It was very disjointed. Author sounded like she had nowhere near enough info for a book so she just kept repeating herself. Most of the historical info was often repeated info from other books I have read. I did learn more about the extent of repurposing materials, including wool. But overall the red sweaters were pretty unimportant to the majority of the material in the book and hard to follow any theme. Not bad but so many better Holocaust books.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a touching and emotional read about the Holocaust told through the stories of four females, their families and this knitwear. As someone who knits, I really enjoyed the attention to detail when it came to knitting and how it connects to the historical context.

I do have to admit that I found it hard to distinguish between the four stories at times, something that other people have also commented on.

[Mary Nolan-Fesmire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and unique telling of the lives of 4 girls and their families during the Holocaust. The story is told around a red sweater that they each owned. It also tells how their survival was partly due to their ability to knit and produce garments for the Nazi's during the Holocaust. Special thanks to NetGalley for this ARC copy.

[Craig and Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big thanks to Ultimo Press for sending us a copy to read and review.
The survivors are becoming fewer and fewer as the years pass with speed but the memories, evidence and memorabilia are stark reminders that this unjust tragedy unfolded not that long ago.
Whether captured on film, paper or in museums the tribute will remain forever.
Red knitted sweaters symbolise the journey and hardships four women had during the Holocaust.
A practical garment for warmth and one that was reminiscent of by gone happier days and one for hope.
Each survivor has their own account and reveal even more pieces to the Nazi terror puzzle.
The underlying focus was the clothing of the era and the resourcefulness of repurposing garments.
The farming of angora rabbits for the fine hair and skins was an interesting facet I was unaware of.
The voices of these survivors echo and allow acknowledgment that millions of stories and voices will never be heard but we will respect and remember the suffering.
It’s hard to comprehend how this heinous crime against humanity happened but I feel in 2025 we can see how cracks form in public opinions, government policies and hard economic times and how hatred whips up like a bushfire.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story follows four main characters, but as it unfolds, it also weaves in the heartbreaking experiences of others. I learned so much about clothing from this era, especially the unexpected and unsettling ways the Nazis viewed and controlled fashion during WWII. It’s a poignant tale of survival, love, kindness, and resilience in the face of unimaginable hardship.
I listened to the audiobook beautifully narrated by Esther Wane, who brought each character’s perspective to life. I also enjoyed flipping through the physical book, which features images of women’s and family clothing, as well as the boasted total yield sign of the Nazis, right down to their socks and thermals. The mix of story and images made it a powerful and emotional read.

A very special thanks to Bibliolifestyle + Harperperennial + HarperAudio + Libro.fm for the complimentary copy.

[Jody Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very powerful book about 4 women and their sweaters. Knitting saved some women from the gas chambers. I had never read about the role of clothing during the Holocaust. Knitted clothing was unraveled and reknitted into socks and sweaters, hats and mittens for the Nazi soldiers, never for the cold and starving women who knitted the items. Some of the women made baby items for the children of their Nazi captors. While their captors were cruel and heartless, the women were able to survive because they had learned to knit. It was wonderful to read at the end that people from around the world sent clothes, sent some of their best clothes, to the refugees to give them back their humanity and their dignity.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was difficult to rate. Because this book is something of great interest to me as someone who studies Fashion History at an academic and professional level. The stories and information were extremely compelling and interesting. I am also am fascinated by the idea of telling the story of people by using an objects, and even more so by using the same object. But I just couldn’t help feeling that this book read like a first draft. The book was very repetitive, emphasizing the same points over and over again. And many times did not let the reader draw their own conclusions (i.e. telling the reader the treatment of Jews was bad instead of letting the reader understand it was bad).

The common thread of the “red sweaters” was interesting in theory but I think it actually stretched the story thin. Because the sweaters were mostly blips in these four girls lives. I think this concept of “four red sweaters” would work well in an exhibition format where you are only able to share a limited amount of information and also visually see the objects. In a book format it became repetitive and felt like Adlington was trying too hard to connect to this theme of “four red sweaters.” The commonality of this garment is very simple and these girls unfortunately lived nothing but simple lives. To me their lives could not be contained in these four sweaters. (I don’t think this was Adlington’s argument but it was too focused on bringing every point back to the sweaters).

The organization of the book left me confused at times too. Again trying to hard to connect to the theme of “sweaters”. Within one chapter, we would jump from theme to theme and story to story sometimes in a matter of a few pages. In the midst of jumping between the girl’s stories, many side characters were introduced for only a brief comment or story. It became easy to jumble the four main stories together. After finishing the book, I have little confidence I could tell you an accurate summary of each of the girl’s stories (without mixing them up or forgetting certain elements). I think it would have made more sense, after an introduction, to go through each girl’s story one at a time. Then tell the conclusion of each one of their stories at the end.

There were sometimes sentences (often referencing other material/interviews/literature) that seemed very random and I was left either confused (for lack of context) and unsure how to apply this information to what I just read. I am not sure if it was added in an attempt to strengthen credibility or if it was genuinely a part of Adlington’s research.

Overall, I think this book needed a thorough and critical editing as well as reorganization. The content and the research were thorough, valid, and interesting but were not able to shine as they should. This currently does not diminish my desire to read Adlington’s other books. I have high hopes that “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz’s” will present its information in a clear and organized way, as it has a broader theme but a narrower setting. I can tell Adlington is a skilled researcher and I hope she continues to refine her writing for publication.

Disclaimer: I received an Uncorrected Proof advance copy via goodreads giveaway. I have never read an Uncorrected Proof before but would imagine edits to be rather minor. My critiques were of larger overall issues not smaller details. If they are vastly different I would be curious to know, especially if they address some of the points I brought up.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book caught my eye on NetGalley because of the title and cover - sweaters? knitting? history? sign me up - even knowing that it was going to be heartbreaking and I usually avoid heartbreaking books. I am very glad I read it.

Adlington initially discovered these women because of two red sweaters displayed in Holocaust memorial museums, wanting to find out who they were and where the sweaters came from. She did that, and more, although the other two sweaters have vanished into the post WWII void. Besides the narratives of the four women associated with the sweaters, she focuses on the role that clothing played in the events of the Nazi efforts to exterminate European Jews. And clothing was central to everything that happened, in ways you might not guess.

One of the women was lucky enough to flee 1930s Germany on a Kindertransport to England, along with her two sisters and her red sweater, not finding out until after the war that her parents and brothers were killed. One was a cellist in the Auschwitz orchestra made famous by the film Playing For Time, concealing beneath her uniform a salvaged red sweater. One was a participant in the escape from Sobibor, who was saved from immediate death by being able to knit; her red sweater was made for one of the camp guards. The fourth one gave her red sweater to her brother as he was fleeing to Russia, before being murdered herself.

So often, our knowledge of the Holocaust is abstract - large numbers thrown around. In this book, it's not abstract. Through the documented memories of these individual women, it becomes horrifyingly specific. As they knitted or played the cello in the camps, they saw trains come in carrying thousands of people every day, who were marched off immediately to the gas chambers and crematoria (often to the sound of marches from the orchestra) unless they were identified as able to work. Women who had skills in knitting and sewing were valued because one of the main products of the camps was secondhand clothing, mountains of it. The people who were being killed left all their clothing behind, and it was all carried to be sorted and repaired (or in the case of woolens, unraveled and reknitted) by the women, and then given to guards or shipped off to Germany to provide clothing for German citizens, so that there would not be shortages that would lead to Germans complaining about the war. One of the women was sorting through piles of clothing on her second day in the camp, and came across her sister's distinctive shoes; it was her first inkling of what happened to the members of her family who had arrived with her. Her sister also could knit, but declined to declare this because she wanted to stay with her mother.

Even Germans who were complicit in the effort to exterminate Jews were happy to acquire and use their used clothes.

There is the occasional textual mannerism I find annoying: Sentences that tell you about a thing. A serious thing. A common and yet unusual thing.... you get the idea. But that does not detract from the achievement of this book. It deserves to be widely read, because when you know how it happened, you know it's entirely possible, even likely, that it could happen again. I wondered throughout, who will be the six million who die before the US comes out of its latest fever? and will anyone come to save the survivors?

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy of this important book.

[Sarah Dressler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy Adlington is a phenomenal researcher of the nuances of WWII, along with hidden stories crossing paths with garments. You may remember her from The Dressmakers of Auschwitz. She just released FOUR RED SWEATERS, and she’s written another phenomenally researched historical account! Thank you @harperperennial @bibliolifestyle & @historywardrobe for my early reading and listening copy!

If you enjoy reading historical texts, designed to shine light on a dark corner of history, Adlington will always be a great choice. FOUR RED SWEATERS chronicles just that, 4 red sweaters and the women responsible for those sweaters throughout the course of WWII.

I appreciate that she weaves these stories with others such as Anne Frank overlapping to show the parallels and consistent timelines. I know that sometimes “the WWII timeline is overdone” but I will never say this. Whether it is historical fiction, or a nonfiction text such as the one Adlington has just released. Light should always shine on the darkest times in our history so we can continue to learn from those times in the future.

[RoxAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a heartbreaking story about 4 red sweaters, the owners of these sweaters that survived the holocaust, and the families and friends they lost. As a knitter, this story really tugged at my heart. If you could knit, you survived (at least for the majority of the war) since the Nazi troops needed wool socks and sweaters to survive the brutal cold. One of the women of the red sweaters played the cello so she survived in an orchestra that entertained the Nazi troops. This book gives a much different perspective than other books I have read about this time. It is a beautifully written, and although long, I wanted more. Highly recommend!

[Laura Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy Adlington’s Four Red Sweaters is a haunting and deeply human tapestry of Holocaust history, woven through the lives of four Jewish girls and women—Jock Heidenstein, Anita Lasker, Chana Zumerkorn, and Regina Feldman—each linked by the quiet symbolism of a red sweater. Names are important to know in historical events, especially women, These garments, ordinary yet poignant, become threads connecting disparate stories of survival, loss, and resilience. Adlington traces their journeys from Berlin and Breslau to ghettos, death camps, and moments of miraculous escape, such as Feldman’s survival of the Sobibor uprising. The book opens with the Kindertransport, a rare act of mercy amid widespread immigration restrictions, and follows each woman’s path through the machinery of Nazi terror. The sweaters serve not only as literal garments but as emotional anchors—tokens of memory, identity, and resistance.

What sets this narrative apart is Adlington’s unique lens as a clothing historian. She illuminates the overlooked significance of “women’s work”—knitting, mending, and textile labor—as both a survival strategy and a form of spiritual defiance. From Chana’s knitting in the Lodz ghetto to Anita’s cello performances in Auschwitz’s women’s orchestra, the book reveals how creativity and skill could mean the difference between life and death. Adlington also explores the Nazis’ grotesque recycling economy, where victims’ clothing was unraveled and repurposed for the very people who oppressed them. Illustrated with archival photographs and grounded in meticulous research, Four Red Sweaters is not just a testament to the horrors endured but a celebration of courage, ingenuity, and the quiet power of the everyday. It’s a vital addition to Holocaust literature—intimate, unforgettable, and stitched with grace.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very well put together novel. I enjoyed reading how the author put these stories together as if you were listening to the survivors stories directly.
It’s heart wrenching, eye opening and captivating. I did appreciate that trials of Nazi soldiers were mentioned and how survivors had to once again face them but took a stand and retold their stories. It focused on the victims and their legacies, the things they lost along the way at the hands of someone else and just how truly devastating it was. And then it gave you hope with how they continued to live their life and ensure those who didn’t survive weren’t forgotten.
I can’t imagine parents having to go through putting their children on a train and hoping they survived- not knowing if they’d be reunited. I didn’t really know much about these trains until this book.

I will definitely be looking into the museums and researching more.

[•Mattie• · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many thanks to Harper Perennial for sending me a copy of Four Red Sweaters by Lucy Adlington to review — I’m so thankful for the opportunity to read this powerful book.

I was completely drawn in by the writing style. Adlington tells these women’s stories with such empathy, clarity, and respect. The blend of historical fact and emotional storytelling was beautifully done, and I found myself deeply moved by the courage, strength, and friendship shared among these incredible women.

While at times difficult to read due to the nature of the events, this book is ultimately a testament to resilience and the human spirit. It left me both heartbroken and inspired.

If you’re drawn to true stories of survival, sisterhood, and history told through a deeply human lens, this is definitely one to pick up!

[Wagrobanite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an interesting book. If you haven't read Lucy's other book, I highly recommend reading it first. The reason this book isn't 5 stars is because of two things. First, it is a little chaotic and there are a lot of people to keep track of, even if the book title says the story of four women. There are way more characters than that and several with similar or the same names, so keeping track of people is sometimes a little difficult. Secondly, footnotes versus endnotes! If you're just citing a source, it's an endnote. If you're adding more context, it's a footnote! I don't know if this is truly a British thing or what, but it's annoying to have to keep flipping back and forth, only to find out it's only a source being cited.

Overall, this book is really really good and is an excellent look at a part of Shoah studies that doesn't get talked about near enough (clothing or women).

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique sharing of a holocaust story, woven together through the textiles of the people. I actually learned quite a bit about the ways in which fabrics and clothing were used as a sort of currency or status or became the difference between life and death. This story was beautifully written and lovingly told. And being a tragic story (of course it was, it’s a holocaust story), it was told with no small amount of hope.

[Nancy G · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this book mostly while in our craft room, surrounded by an abundance of threads and fabrics. On the shelves lay my own family's treasure trove of letters from their time separated during the Holocaust. I was connected to my grandmothers who both worked as seamstresses when they came to America. I was immersed in the stories and how my own family history could easily be woven into these stories.
This was one of the most tangible tales of people during this period, people who did not know each other, but had a story involving a red sweater.

[Ellen Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this fascinating bc it is so close to what real life is like. Normal people living through tumultuous times and how people used their every day skills to survive.

[Robin Rashcovsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very moving and well written.
The power and meaning of love and knitting

[Kayla Galvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Hate,hard as bullet-pitted concrete or spikes of barbed wire, is endlessly renewable. I’d like to think that love, soft and fragile like woolen yarn, lasts longer.”

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate to give a low rating to anything that details the Holocaust…. But because the title sets up a very specific expectation I have to. The book starts with the 4 sweaters. Then it goes off on a deep dive on various other Jewish people and their experiences through WWII. So many other people in fact, that I totally lost which of these people were the sweater people. The story goes back to just the 4 sweaters at the end.

The idea of utilizing textiles, and the utility/necessity of them is good. I feel like the author got derailed by research and wanted to include it all. Typos were common.

I sort of read like a masters thesis…..

[Jean Moy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I normally love WW2 books but this one was so difficult to get through. It followed the stories of 4 different girls but it was so hard to keep everyone straight and there were SO many extra characters. The writing style was more like a history book with no dialogue and that was hard to get through as well.

[Karen Maheady · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are powerful but this book felt like it was written as a short story then parts were repeated to add length.

[Christina DeOrnellas · Rating 1 out of 5]

This books reads like a history textbook books listing dates and events. Lack or personal connection with characters because there are too many. The red sweater aspect of stories seems to be an after thought.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Four Red Sweaters
Author: Lucy Adlington
Narrated by: Esther Wane
Publisher: HarperAudio
Length: Approximately 9 hours and 54 minutes
Source: Audiobook Purchased from Audible and Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial for a physical copy of the book as part of the Bibliolifestyle Book Tour.

Do you have a special item of clothing that holds meaning to you? My Dad recently brought me boxes from the attic that had special clothing from when I was a child. It was fun to look through them.

Jock Heidenstein, Anita Lasker, Chana Zumerkorn, and Regina Feldman were four different women who experienced the Holocaust in different ways. They did not know each other, but their lives were all impacted by a red sweater. Author Lucy Adlington, tells their stories in a unique way through the history of clothing, their relatives, and their experiences.

My thoughts on this novel:
• I liked the interesting discussion of knitting. At that time, almost everyone knew how to knit. During wartime, blackouts, etc., it was particularly comforting to know how to knit while waiting. It also made items of great need. Those that did not know how to knit, learned how to in the dark.

• Later in the war, Jews were made to hand over their skeins of wool to Germans.

• I am haunted by much in this book, but in one chapter in particular, “Nobody must know,” describes how a castle, Chelmno, was used to exterminate the Jews. They were gassed large scale, and their clothing was thrown out into a large pile. A local girl worked for a German commander, and he told her that “nobody must know.” She slipped out to see what was happening at the castle and saw it for herself. She was horrified. The people lived around this area and saw the Jewish people going to the castle in mass and not return. Only their clothing remained which was sorted and sent out for Germans to use. Nothing was wasted. People went to Catholic mass at the castle on Sunday. The church was used to strip Jews during the week. It is horrifying. The locals knew this was happening and nothing was done about it. When you believe the rhetoric that other people are considered inferior or subhuman, you become part of the evil.

• Chana Zumerkorn was told she was going to get to “work outside the Ghetto,” but she was sent to Chelmno and never seen again. Why was she selected when she was a stocking worker? By 1943, German publications were advertising cities that were now “free of Jews.”

• Polish families would be moved off farms and Germans would just take them over.

• It was interesting to look through the lense of history through what we have left behind. When all that is left is a red sweater, what is the story of the little girl who used to wear it?

• They physical book had pictures that helped to bring the story to life.

• Esther Wane was a great narrator of the audiobook and brough each woman’s story to life.

Favorite Quote: “He was nobody in the terms of world history, and the world to everyone that loved him.”

Overall, Four Red Sweaters by Lucy Adlington is a unique story of four different ordinary women and their experiences through the holocaust. It is a story I won’t soon forget, and I am glad that their stories were finally told. It’s important to know history to make sure we never repeat these terrible times.

This review was first posted on my blog at: https://lauragerold.blogspot.com/2025...

[Morgan Hazo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as an audio book.

“We must humanize history”

Part 1 I struggled to follow and felt disorganized. A lot of individuals were introduced and I wish I had a family tree to follow. It was difficult to know who was related to whom, and who was just an individual in this greater story. I also kept struggling to see how specifically a red sweater, or red sweaters, had meaning. Lucy does mention how a red sweater was/is on display in the Imperial War Museum BUT it was kinda a grasp to try to weave in Anne Frank. Supposedly there’s also another red sweater on display (next to? Near?) near Anita’s red sweater (I think it’s hers on display).
Part 2 really goes in to the extermination and concentration camps. Here, I think is where the book could have started. Although intense, I immediately was able to put together the significance of *why* the resilience of bright colors, knitting, and acts of subtle resistance were able to take place.
In learning Holocaust history, I think it’s easy to only be focused on Anne Frank, Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. It was sobering to hear of the Sobibol camp and the uprising where 600 imprisoned Jews (and Jewish POW) planned to overwhelm SS officers to escape. 300 were able to get out, and 50 remained after the war. A survivor was then caught and brought to Auschwitz (described in the story) and survived through liberation.

I wish the afterward was actually the foreword. The details presented after the writing could have been more valuably given before.

Ultimately, knowing how to knit saved lives of not only the knitter, but those around them. For others, being the cellist in Auschwitz also saved lives. In remembrance, I believe Anita has created a knitting pattern with hidden stars. Anita has her own memoir as well.

Information about Sobibol:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/conten...

Extended Literature of why clothes/knitwear enacted survival:
https://link.springer.com/article/10....

The red sweater from Anita in the museum:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/blog/partnersh...

[Marsha Rafalski · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.75 rounded to 4.0).

Lucy Adlington is a clothing historian and has concentrated most of her work around the fashions of the-mid twentieth century specifically the years leading up to the Second World War, the war and postwar years. Her work strives to tell “the stories clothes can tell about the people who made, sold and wore them.” Her work includes “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz”, “Women's Lives & Clothes in WW2” and “Stitches in Time: The Story of the Clothes We Wear”, as well as a collection of her YA Fiction.

In this latest work, Adlington focuses on four Jewish girls. They did not know each other; they had four widely different experiences of the Holocaust; they suffered varying degrees of torture; but they had one thing in common—they each owned a red sweater that helped them to survive. When Jews were forbidden to exhibit color or to own their own clothing, each of these girls wore their defiance like a shield. Jock Heidenstein, Anita Lasker, Chana Zumerkorn, and Regina Feldman each had a different wartime experience. Jockewet Heidenstein, a Kindertransport survivor sent from Berlin, treasured for decades a red sweater that her mother, who later died at Auschwitz bought for her to travel abroad. Chana Zumerkorn a young seamstress in the Lodz ghetto was spared longer than most because of her knitting skills, she knitted her sweater. Chana was transported to Chelmno extermination camp and murdered. She gave her sweater to her brother just before she was transported. Regina Feldman, an escapee in the Sobibor uprising, was also kept alive for her knitting skills, and later recalled conspiring with fellow seamstresses while being forced to knit a red-striped sweater for an SS officer. Anita Lasker, a cellist in the Auschwitz Women’s Orchestra, years later recounted a powerfully symbolic act of resistance: stealing back her red angora sweater from the camps massive piles of stolen clothing. With the exception of Chana Zumerkorn who perished in an extermination camp, the three remaining girls survived the war and Anita Lasker-Wall­fisch, is still alive today at nine­ty-nine years of age.

Although there are any number of books chronicling the Holocaust, this one stands out for the subject and the profile of the four young women linked by ownership of a talisman and a nightmare that followed them for the rest of their lives. This book pulls no punches regarding the political climate leading up to the war and the horrors of the Holocaust. I found the book informative, with a fresh approach that leaves a lingering sadness and appreciation of the human condition. Recommend to readers of Nonfiction, history, the Holocaust, WWII, biography, women’s history, fashion, clothing, and knitting.