Lizou Fenyvesi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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A uniform of any kind, whether worn by a fireman, a nurse or a soldier, is designed to inform us ... more A uniform of any kind, whether worn by a fireman, a nurse or a soldier, is designed to inform us about the person who wears it; and the same thing holds true for a prisoner uniform. In this presentation I am examining textiles from recent history: the prisoner uniforms from Nazi concentration camps; I attempt to "read" the information they contain. Most, but not all, of the prisoner uniforms were striped. Iconography, in this case the stripes, is the most readily interpreted aspect of a textile. But other aspects of the uniforms are also well worth exploring. Manufacturing details, such as the materials used and the tailoring, tell us about the practical application of Nazi ideology and about the quality of textile materials in wartime. Alterations made by prisoners testify about living conditions as well as the prisoner's adaptation to these conditions. Even the damage on the uniforms is telling; wear patterns and different stains suggest the prisoner's work assignment.
A uniform of any kind, whether worn by a fireman, a nurse or a soldier, is designed to inform us ... more A uniform of any kind, whether worn by a fireman, a nurse or a soldier, is designed to inform us about the person who wears it; and the same thing holds true for a prisoner uniform. In this presentation I am examining textiles from recent history: the prisoner uniforms from Nazi concentration camps; I attempt to "read" the information they contain. Most, but not all, of the prisoner uniforms were striped. Iconography, in this case the stripes, is the most readily interpreted aspect of a textile. But other aspects of the uniforms are also well worth exploring. Manufacturing details, such as the materials used and the tailoring, tell us about the practical application of Nazi ideology and about the quality of textile materials in wartime. Alterations made by prisoners testify about living conditions as well as the prisoner's adaptation to these conditions. Even the damage on the uniforms is telling; wear patterns and different stains suggest the prisoner's work assignment.