Dress in Auschwitz

Nyhet

Clothing and Survival in the Holocaust

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

Av Sofia Pantouvaki, Finland) Pantouvaki, Professor Sofia (Aalto University, Reina Lewis, Elizabeth Wilson

1 889 kr

Kommande

Exploring the experience of Auschwitz prisoners through the lens of dress and clothing, Dress in Auschwitz examines clothing's profound importance to the inmates' physical, psychological, and spiritual survival.Drawing on a wide range of sources, including survivor memoirs, testimonies, personal interviews, surviving garments, and rare illustrations, Sofia Pantouvaki focuses on inmates’ sartorial activities and the intimate psychological relationships that developed between prisoners and their clothes. In so doing, she highlights how clothing was vital in facilitating inmates’ daily lives, improving their chances of survival in the camp, and supporting the desire for personal expression in a dehumanizing environment.Holocaust survivors’ memoirs and interviews have increasingly evidenced that the infamous striped uniforms were not the standard clothing throughout the years of the Nazi concentration camp system. As the war continued and shortages intensified, prisoners were often given a wide range of garments, including uniforms of deceased Soviet prisoners-of-war and civilian garments from the piles of clothing of other incoming prisoners.Dress in Auschwitz allows us a glimpse of the persons’ individual - and sometimes very private - experiences of concentration camp life and suggests that the notion of ‘elegance’ operated as a social construct and a motivating force even in such punishing conditions. The book proves that the multifaceted functions of dress can remain relevant - and vitally important - even in the most appalling and inhumane conditions and times.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-02-19
Mått156 x 234 x 25 mm
Vikt454 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieDress Cultures
Antal sidor272
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN9781788313681

Tillhör följande kategorier

Designhistoria inom Kultur
Förintelsen inom Historia och arkeologi

Dr Sofia Pantouvaki is Professor of Costume Design at Aalto University, Finland. She is an award-winning set and costume designer with over 90 credits in major European venues and curator of international projects. She is the Chair of Critical Costume, Editor of Studies in Costume and Performance and lead editor, with Peter McNeil, of Performance Costume: New Perspectives and Methods (Bloomsbury, 2021).

AcknowledgementsPrologueIntroduction: Auschwitz through the Experience of Dress1: Studying Dress in Auschwitz: Sources and Approaches2: Undressing in the Camps: Arrival, Marking and Humiliation3: Sourcing and Distribution of Camp Dress: Typologies and Variations4: Extreme Situations: Clothing Practices and Caring for the Self5: Camp ‘Fashions’: From Decency to ‘Style’6: Dress for Survival: from Living to EscapeEpilogueReferencesAppendices - Abbreviations, Camp Terminology; Testimonies (Archival testimonies, Survivors' Memoirs, Personal Interviews)IndexBibliography/ReferencesAppendicesAbbreviations / Camp TerminologyTestimonies: Archival testimonies / Survivors’ Memoirs / Personal InterviewsIndex

Dress in Auschwitz is groundbreaking in scope and sensitivity. The voices of survivors resonate alongside Sofia Pantouvaki’s forensic attention to stitching and the wear of camp clothing, revealing how dress shaped survival. By decoding acts of modification, like sewing a secret pocket or tailoring a rough hem, she uncovers in fascinating ways how inmates managed to personalize their clothing in the face of depersonalization. This book reframes clothing as a critical tool for survival and a prism through which the nuances of camp life are newly understood.