Prisoners’ clothing under National Socialism

Currently on display in the Fashion Room of the BERLIN GLOBAL exhibition is the prisoner’s jacket of Maria Schwella, who was interned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1944. Imprisoned women had to make jackets like this in the camp’s internal tailor shop.

The clothing that prisoners wore was intended to make them recognisable, to discipline them and to deny them their individuality. Andrea Genest, director of the Ravensbrück Memorial, and staff member Sabine Röwer discuss, among other things, how female prisoners used clothing to protect themselves from the inhumane conditions in the concentration camp – and how they even customised and embellished it.

Moderation: Frauke Miera
Speakers: Dr Andrea Genest and Sabine Röwer

The talk will be held in German with simultaneous translation into English and German sign language.

Sabine Röwer has worked at the Ravensbrück Memorial since 1987 and currently works in its collection/repository.

Dr Frauke Miera is a political scientist and curator specialising in urban history, migration and discrimination. She has been working at the Stadtmuseum Berlin since 2021. Before that she was a freelance curator and worked on the BERLIN GLOBAL exhibition, among others.