Young fashion designer continues her grandmother’s legacy from before the Holocaust

by Leah Rosenberg
241 views

What a legacy and what a story! Her grandmother survived the Holocaust and now the grandaughter launched a fashion design company in her name.

Nina Broder

Nina Broder grew up in Israel. Brager Couture is her new fashion design company that designs beautiful modest clothing for women.

She named her company, Brager, after her great-grandmother who escaped Nazi Germany to London.  Her grandmother was an extremely talented artisan and dressmaker before World War II. Somehow, she managed to take her sowing machine with her to London and survived the war.

Very few members of her great-grandmother’s family, the Brager family, survived the war. Nina felt that it was very important to her to continue the Brager name in the creative way her great-grandmother had lived her life. Her great-grandmother’s legacy now lives on.

German Jewish Refugees from the Holocaust

The first big wave of refugees from World War II and specifically the Holocaust, came before the War began in 1939.  Germany enacted the Nuremberg Laws years beforehand.  This basically institutionalized racism and dehumanized the Jewish people.  Most German Jews – around 500,000 in the 1930’s realized that they had no future in Germany.  So, the first ones to go or be sent were the children – more specifically – the teenagers.  The problem was that there were limited places that were willing to take them in.

Where will they go?

Despite the fact that England did not allow many Jews to enter the land of Palestine in pre-State Israel, some still persisted and made it there without permission.  Many Jews found refuge in England too.  But there were very few places that let in Jews.  The Evian Conference clarified to the entire world that nobody was truly willing to take in masses of Jews.  Nobody.  Some exceptions were Cuba and the Dominican Republic that each took in a few thousand.  But most of the German Jewish population stayed put until 1938.  Then, the night of broken glass – Kristallnacht occurred.  This was the worst calamity that the German Nazis committed against the Jewish people before the war began less than a year later.  The Nazis destroyed hundreds of synagogues.  They killed scores of Jews and took thousands into concentration camps and tortured them there.

Last Minute Attempts to Get Out

This led to a frantic attempt by the German Jewish population to do anything to get out of Germany.  Many succeeded.  Some made it to France, but the Nazis killed many of those refugees too. Some made it to Sweden, Switzerland or Holland and survived.  The most famous of the refugee groups that survived was the Kindertransport to England.  Thousands of teenagers survived the War in England and never saw their families again.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More