The Red Ribbon

It’s late 1944, and even though the German army is in retreat, the Reich’s death camps are busier than ever.  That’s when teenaged Ella, a talented seamstress, is taken away by the authorities and sent to Birchwood concentration camp (a thinly disguised Auschwitz-Birkenau).  Because of her skills, Ella is assigned to a dressmaking studio that makes high-style couture items for female guards and officer’s wives.

 

This is an interesting book.  The counterpoint between the elegant fabrics and careful craftsmanship of the dress studio set against the everyday horrors of death camp existence gives the story dramatic tension.  Furthermore, the narrative moves swiftly forward as the liberating armies approach Birchwood and, as the Nazi program of racial extermination kicks into high gear, Ella and her fellow prisoners must struggle even more fiercely to survive.

 

An unusual look at one of the 20th century’s darkest times.