Renée Firestone

Renée Firestone ( Weinfeld; born April 13, 1924) is a Czechoslovak-Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and educator, who became known for her fashion designs in the 1960s after she immigrated to the United States.

Early life Born Renée Weinfeld in Uzhhorod, Czechoslovakia on April 13, 1924, she lived in an area annexed into Hungary in 1938. She was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 along with her family when she was 19. She lost her mother and a sister there, then survived a death march before she was liberated in 1945. They immigrated to the United States in 1948 and settled in Los Angeles, California. In 2012 she was featured in the Museum of California Design's "California's Designing Women: 1896—1986" exhibit. Some of her fashion designs are in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's (LACMA) permanent collection.

Starting in 1977, Firestone devoted herself to educating others about the Holocaust, and she has spoken widely. In 2018 she said, "Get to know each other. People don't know each other. You have to understand we are all the same...If you don't know someone, it's just a stranger to you and it's very easy to get rid of a stranger."

Firestone is one of the main subjects of the 2016 documentary film The Last Laugh, directed by Ferne Pearlstein. In the film, Firestone made her position clear on using humor about the Holocaust as a means of survival and resistance: "It's OK to make fun of the Nazis, but not about the killing. Making fun of the Nazis is OK with me." Frank Scheck wrote for The Hollywood Reporter, "After Auschwitz proves an inspiring testament to the indomitability of the human spirit."

Awards Museum of California Design (MOCAD), Los Angeles, 2012