Clothing
The men selected upon arrival in Auschwitz to perform forced labor for I.G. Farben received the prisoner clothing worn as a uniform at the Auschwitz concentration camp: trousers and a jacket made of blue-and-white striped cotton ticking, a shirt, a pair of underpants, a striped cap, and shoes. Strips of cloth with a triangle and a prisoner number were to be sewn onto the trousers and jacket. The shoes
Each inmate was issued only one set of clothes. The loss of clothing items, especially the cap, was punished. The clothing could be changed only every six to eight weeks. The soiled garments went to the disinfection chamber, where after 1944 they were no longer washed, but only disinfected with steam and returned. The prisoners had no soap, and rarely had the strength to wash their clothes in the little free time allowed them. The sole exception was that the clothing of prisoners who worked in I.G. offices was washed more frequently. In general, the filthy and often damaged clothes, however, contributed to the wretched appearance of the inmates. Still, there was a requirement that the clothing had to look tidy; for example, all the jacket buttons had to be properly sewed on at all times
In winter, the prisoners received a prisoner outfit made of somewhat heavier material and, if they were very lucky, a coat or sweater as well. In the course of 1944, owing to a shortage of the striped outfits, the inmates also were given civilian clothes from the personal-effects warehouse, with each item marked with a red bar or cloth strip. Some surviving inmates of the Buna/Monowitz concentration camp also report that they were allowed to keep their shoes upon arrival. One such survivor is Miroslav Ribner, who came there in summer 1944.
Even before that time, prisoner functionaries could obtain civilian clothes, wool sweaters, leather jackets, and shoes from “Canada” through the underground economy of Auschwitz. Clothing and shoes were traded in camp or also to civilian workers at the construction site for food. Some inmates were aided by British prisoners of war who gave them clothing. Additional food could be earned by mending, washing, or ironing the clothes of prisoner functionaries, by “organizing” clothing, or by trading oil or grease stolen at the construction site. Those two items were needed by the block elders, to comply with the camp directive that the inmates had to polish their wooden shoes.
The wooden shoes caused blisters, open sores, and an unusually high incidence of phlegmons, purulent inflammations with inflammation of connective tissue. Some prisoners tried to barter for cloth rags to wrap around their feet. But the work at the construction site frequently was done in softened soil, and dirt and damp increased the risk of infection. The inmates’ thin clothing gave inadequate protection from the cold. In winter, scarcely a single detachment came back from work without frostbite, and often there were 30 dead in a day. Since I.G. Farben issued protective clothing such as gloves or glasses to the inmates only in rare instances, prisoners unloading bricks or iron with bare hands were often injured, while the skin of those working on iron or cable-laying teams in winter frequently froze fast to the metal. Fewer than 10 percent of the prisoners were supplied with mittens by the plant management, though the issuance of any at all made it clear that the managers were well aware of the need for them. Individual Meister might try to get better clothing for their detachment.
Although this was forbidden, inmates tried to line their thin prisoner clothing with cement sacks, paper, or straw to keep out the cold. Especially on January 18, 1945, when the SS abandoned the Buna/Monowitz concentration camp, prisoners tried to use these materials to reinforce their clothing before the march through snow and freezing cold. Many of the inmates, who had to march through the snow in wooden shoes and wearing only a jacket and trousers, did not survive the death march.
(MN; transl. KL)