First published 2025
Lucy Adlington chronicles the separate wartime experiences of Jock Heidenstein, Anita Lasker, Chana Zumerkorn, and Regina Feldman. These four Jewish girls never met during the Holocaust, yet each possessed a red sweater that became central to her survival story. The award-winning clothes historian traces how these ordinary garments connected their lives across different locations and circumstances. Each girl faced the systematic destruction of her family and community while drawing on reserves of resilience, skill, and compassion. Adlington weaves together their individual accounts of endurance through the war's darkest moments. The red sweaters serve as threads linking stories that might otherwise remain isolated fragments of history. Through meticulous research, the author reconstructs experiences that illuminate both the suffering these young women endured and the strength that carried them forward. The book includes over two dozen black-and-white photographs that bring their stories into sharper focus. Adlington celebrates the courage and determination that allowed these four strangers to survive when so many others perished.
Genres: holocaust, historical-fiction, 20th-century, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, survival
Setting: Europe
Period: World War II
496 pages · Paperback · Harper Large Print
Content warnings: death, violence