ABSTRACT

The striped concentration camp uniform has become one of the most powerful symbols of the Holocaust – the term used specifically to mean the Nazi persecution and murder of Europe’s Jews from 1933 to 1945 (Figure 11.1). In truth, these uniforms were worn by a wide variety of the prisoner groups held in the concentration camps on grounds of race, ideology, religion or sexual orientation. The idea that the uniform was a way of branding Jews only and not other victims of Nazi persecution no doubt stems from documentary footage showing the liberation of the camps in 1945, in particular Bergen-Belsen, which contained the largest proportion of Jewish survivors, and feature films such as Schindler’s List. In fact, the majority of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust either perished in the appalling conditions of the ghettos, were shot by SS killing squads, or were gassed upon arrival at the Nazi death camps in occupied Poland. Yet the concentration camps nonetheless remain an important part of the Jewish experience of the Holocaust. The overwhelming majority of European Jews who survived went through at least one such camp – Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück, to name just a few. The striped uniform was the symbol, not just of the camps, but of the Nazi slave labour programme that they fed, which relied heavily on Jews and which cost many of them their lives. Here, I will examine the origins of this uniform, the circumstances of its issue, and, most importantly, the psychological impact that it had upon its reluctant wearers. I will also discuss its elevation to an iconic symbol of the Holocaust, including its importance for museum display and its place in the new ‘industry’ of Holocaust counterfeiting. Display of camp uniforms in the Holocaust Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum (© Imperial War Museum) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315851846/cd1ab064-5451-4d38-9408-359fec75c9cd/content/fig11_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>