Prisoner’s Uniform Jacket
This striped prisoner’s jacket originally belonged to a German CapoCapo: (Kapo), trustee, an SS appointed prisoner who was the head of a labor squad. He or she retained this privileged position by terrorizing subordinate prisoners.
The Capos were an instrument of the camp regime of humiliation and cruelty, and their role was to break the spirits of the prisoners.
The Capos had warm clothing, enough to eat and lived in a reserved section to the prison barracks. In many instances Capos who mistreated prisoners were put on trial after the war. Source: Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle; Encyclopedia of the Holocaust; various survivor memoirs (see Bibliography). (trustee). Harry Liwerant took it when he was on a death march that passed through Blechhammer, a sub-camp of Auschwitz. The uniforms of ordinary prisoners were not lined and not tailored and often little more than rags.
Photo Credit: Jewish Community Center of New Orleans
