‘Fashion in Auschwitz’: Concentration Camp Clothing during World War II: Heretofore Unknown Aspects of Personal Experiences

Abstract

Clothing in the concentration camps during World War II served to cover the human body, but above all to identify individuals as prisoners. Research has shown that prisoners in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps did not always wear striped uniforms; a wide range of other garments, including civilian clothing marked in specific ways, was used to identify inmates as well. Their prisoner status was underlined by numbers, tattooed on their arms, as well as by various markings worn, sewn or painted on their clothing. This chapter draws valuable information both from archival testimony given by prisoners and from unpublished evidence documented in personal interviews with former camp inmates who survived and are still alive today. Selected material from these survivors’ recollections is presented in order to elucidate certain personal aspects of the clothing they wore and the way they dressed in the concentration camps. Such aspects relate to the desire for personal expression, the need to look as good as possible and to facilitate their daily lives, to the possibility of improving their chances of survival, as well as to the very remote possibility of escape.