Diane von Furstenberg on Her Mother’s Holocaust Survival Story (Exclusive) [Video]

Diane von Furstenberg credits her mother, Liliane Halfin, 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.

In the film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival June 5 and comes to Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally June 25, von Furstenberg discusses her late mother’s life and 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 …