Diane von Furstenberg’s mother was a survivor of the Holocaust in Auschwitz, and the designer emphasized that her story greatly influenced her life and how she deals with everyday life.

“The first thing I say to myself every morning is how grateful I am that my mother survived the Holocaust,” the designer told People magazine in a discussion about her remarkable career in fashion, on the occasion of the release of the documentary ” Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge’.

In the documentary, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 5, Diane von Furstenberg talks about her mother’s life and legacy.

Speaking to People, Diane von Furstenberg recounts: “My mother was a 21-year-old girl who distributed fake newspapers to Jews. He was arrested for resisting. She was so afraid that she would be tortured to give the names of the others that she told the police: “I don’t know anything. I’m hiding here because I’m Jewish.” A woman at the police station where they took her told her: “Don’t tell them you’re Jewish because they’ll take you away.” But anyway, it was too late.”

Diane on Furstenberg added after that her mother was taken to a building that used to be a military school but had been turned into a prison. He continued: “It was a beautiful building with an ugly purpose: it served as a detention center for people who would be sent to concentration camps. They stayed there until 1000 people were gathered and then they were taken to the train to go to Auschwitz.”

But when her mother was arrested, she was in one of the last phalanxes leaving prison, so, Diane adds, “after she was there for nine days, they filled the train with 507 people and sent her away.”

Von Furstenberg’s mother miraculously survived, and in doing so, she says, “she has seven descendants on my side and five on my brother’s side. Nobody would be here if she hadn’t survived.”

While on the truck taking her to the train to Auschwitz, her mother somehow got her hands on a piece of cardboard, on which she wrote a note to her parents, and then threw it on the street in the hope that it would it was enough.

“I never believed that story,” says Diane. “And my mother didn’t know if the note had reached her parents, because after her release, no one wanted to talk about it anymore. But after my mother and her sister died, my cousin brought me a box full of pictures. Inside that box of photos, there was an envelope. It was very, very flat because it had been there for 50 years. And I opened this folder and found the notes. And that was, wow,” says von Furstenberg. “I could not believe it”.

It is worth noting that the military school that served as a prison where the designer’s mother was before being sent to Auschwitz became a luxurious apartment building. “The people who lived there decided they wanted to do something to honor the prisoners, so when a windowless parking lot was built across the street from the apartment building, they put pictures of the 26,000 people who were arrested on an outside wall.” Among these photos is one of Diane von Furstenberg’s mother.

Speaking to People, Diane von Furstenberg emphasized that from a young age her mother equipped her with an incredible inner strength.

“I was born 18 months after my mother was found skeletonized in a field full of ashes. “It wasn’t supposed to survive, but it did, and my birth was a miracle,” says von Furstenberg.

“My mother used to say: ‘God saved me so I could give you life. By giving you life, you gave me my life back. You are the light of my freedom.” He never wanted me to be afraid or a victim. So I trained myself to see every adversity as an opportunity: If you accept your imperfections, they become your advantage. If you accept your vulnerability, you turn it into strength. That’s how I grew up.”