Diane von Furstenberg credits her mother, Liliane Halfin (born Nahmias), with teaching her a number of valuable life lessons.
What Halfin, a Holocaust survivor, experienced at Auschwitz, also shapes every one of von Furstenberg’s days.
My first gratitude every day is that my mother survived [the Holocaust]
, the designer tells PEOPLE as she discusses her trailblazing career ahead of the release of the documentary Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge.
The Impact of Her Mother’s Legacy
Speaking to PEOPLE, von Furstenberg shares, My mother was a 21-year-old girl, and she was passing fake papers to Jewish people. She was arrested because she was doing resistance.
She was so afraid that she was going to be tortured to give names of the others that she [told officers], ‘I don’t know anything. I’m hiding here because I’m Jewish.’ A woman at the police station where she was taken said, ‘Don’t tell them you’re Jewish because they’re going to take you away.’ But anyway, it was too late
, she says.
A Story of Survival
Von Furstenberg shares that her mother was taken to a prison which happened to be at a military school that had been converted. It served as a holding place for people to be sent to concentration camps.
They would stay there until they were 1,000. And when they were 1,000, they would take them to the train to go to Auschwitz
, von Furstenberg explains. By the time her mother got arrested, she was on one of the last convoys to leave the prison.
Diane and her mother Liliane Halfin circa 1946. Courtesy Diane von Furstenberg Archive.
The Gratitude and Legacy
Von Furstenberg’s mother miraculously survived, giving rise to a dynasty. Diane comments,I was born 18 months after my mother was just a few bones in a field of ashes. She wasn’t supposed to survive, but she survived, and my birth was a miracle.
A Personal Journey Reflected in Film
Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge, co-directed by Academy Award winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Trish Dalton, delves deeply into von Furstenberg’s legacy. “Lucky for us, Diane saves everything,” filmmaker Obaid-Chinoy tells THR.
Navigating Career Challenges
This documentary also highlights the historic significance of Furstenberg’s infamous wrap dress created in 1972 which became an embodiment of women’s liberation and empowerment.
