Four Red Sweaters by Lucy Adlington (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

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.