The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive

Auschwitz prisoners engaged in both successful and unsuccessful attempts to thwart SS officials. For example, Maria Stromberger, a Catholic nurse who volunteered for service at Auschwitz, reportedly “saw it as her humanitarian mission to help inmates whenever possible, including Jews” (236). This help often took the form of passing along information to Marta Fuchs and others; Stromberger also preserved some of the evidence of Auschwitz’s atrocities that would be presented in postwar trials.

Alliances developed among the Stabsgebäude workers. Here, prisoners not only traded food and other goods but engaged in intellectual discussions and taught one another their native languages. Importantly, they also provided care for anyone who fell ill. The network of alliances helped pass along information about the war and Allied progress. For a time, privileged prisoners were allowed to send mail to family outside of Auschwitz. Though heavily monitored and censored, such mail could carry coded warnings to uncaptured Jews.

Because she made frequent trips to the Kanada storehouses, Marta was well positioned to participate in the underground resistance. She not only had access to vital contacts but to “bribes, papers, and disguises for escape” (243). Though escape was rarely successful—even those who made it outside the camp risked round-ups—Marta planned to try.