Concentration Camp Prisoner Uniforms
Ignorance of the Holocaust can be very expensive. Witness what happened to Zara in August, 2014. Zara is a Spanish based clothes retailer and one of the largest in the world. It created a fire storm last August when it opted to retail a children’s shirt which it stated was inspired the American West (picture 1). While its resemblance to the prisoner uniforms worn by concentration camp inmates is obvious, Zara defended itself by noting the word “sheriff” was included within the yellow star, and the stripes were horizontal, not vertical. Nevertheless, Zara agreed to pull the item and apologized for its error. In fact, one can learn a tremendous deal of information about the Holocaust and its victims from studying these uniforms. Judging by the number of museums that display these uniforms, a relatively large number survived the Holocaust. This means that the uniform was an especially significant item to those that survived. Yad Vashem has on display the uniform shirt of Dr. Walter Loebner who survived Auschwitz (picture 2). Sewn on the shirt are the yellow and red triangles, the yellow signifying a Jewish prisoner and the red for one who was politically unreliable. Also Dr. Loebner’s …show more content…
For example, Boston’s Museum of World War II states that it is devoted to “preserving and exhibiting” artifacts in order to bring home the reality of WWII. The museum has the prisoner uniform of Francois Sheaken, a survivor of Buchenwald (picture 3). The museum has opted to display the uniform on a mannequin that resembles Sheaken. However, they locate the mannequin between two others on which are displayed SS uniforms. The mannequins themselves arguably resemble the Nazi’s concept of the “ideal Aryan”. My concern is that the display lends credence to the Nazi’s racial view of Jews as physically
Ignorance of the Holocaust can be very expensive. Witness what happened to Zara in August, 2014. Zara is a Spanish based clothes retailer and one of the largest in the world. It created a fire storm last August when it opted to retail a children’s shirt which it stated was inspired the American West (picture 1). While its resemblance to the prisoner uniforms worn by concentration camp inmates is obvious, Zara defended itself by noting the word “sheriff” was included within the yellow star, and the stripes were horizontal, not vertical. Nevertheless, Zara agreed to pull the item and apologized for its error. In fact, one can learn a tremendous deal of information about the Holocaust and its victims from studying these uniforms. Judging by the number of museums that display these uniforms, a relatively large number survived the Holocaust. This means that the uniform was an especially significant item to those that survived. Yad Vashem has on display the uniform shirt of Dr. Walter Loebner who survived Auschwitz (picture 2). Sewn on the shirt are the yellow and red triangles, the yellow signifying a Jewish prisoner and the red for one who was politically unreliable. Also Dr. Loebner’s …show more content…
For example, Boston’s Museum of World War II states that it is devoted to “preserving and exhibiting” artifacts in order to bring home the reality of WWII. The museum has the prisoner uniform of Francois Sheaken, a survivor of Buchenwald (picture 3). The museum has opted to display the uniform on a mannequin that resembles Sheaken. However, they locate the mannequin between two others on which are displayed SS uniforms. The mannequins themselves arguably resemble the Nazi’s concept of the “ideal Aryan”. My concern is that the display lends credence to the Nazi’s racial view of Jews as physically