Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg wore an ensemble to the Met Gala in New York City on Monday that payed tribute to her late mother on the anniversary of the day that she was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The fashion icon, 72, arrived at the event dressed as the Statue of Liberty while holding high a fake flaming torch. Before the gala, she posted on Instagram a photo of herself wearing the Statue of Liberty’s iconic crown, writing, “Today May 6, 1944, my mother was arrested and sent to Auschwitz… 75 years later, I am going to the Met Ball as her torch of Freedom!”

She also shared a photo of her and her granddaughter Talia, who was her date to the Met Gala.

 

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and the journey goes on ….

A post shared by @ therealdvf on May 6, 2019 at 8:08pm PDT

The designer’s mother, Liliane Nahmias, who was of Greek-Jewish descent and lived in Belgium, was involved in resistance efforts against the Nazis and helped Jews get counterfeit papers. She was arrested and sent to Auschwitz on May 6, 1944, becoming one of just 1,244 out of the 25,631 Belgian Jews who were deported. Nahmias was held at Auschwitz for 13 months before being liberated, according to The Daily Mail.

Nahmias returned home soon after and married Leon Halfin, and a few months later she learned she was pregnant with her daughter. Nahmias chose to keep the baby despite being told by doctors that she was not healthy enough to carry a child.