Why did the prisoners in Auschwitz have to wear uniforms with blue vertical stripes?


They all recall the striped uniform. Black and white. Straight lines. It seems that there was discipline in the midst of chaos. But that image is not true.

At first yes, stripes were worn by some of the prisoners at Auschwitz. It was humiliating. Make them stand out. Easy to shoot if they attempted to escape. It wasn't kindness. It was control.

But then the system failed. The trains kept coming. There were too many people. They were going too fast. The Nazis couldn’t manage their own system. They ran out of uniforms. So they stopped trying.

Arrivals had their clothing removed, shoved toward a heap of pilfered clothing and instructed to pick something. Anything. A woman might don a man's coat. A child might put on a too-large dress. Sore shoes. No shoes. Anything.

It appeared crazy because it was. The Nazis branded it with white paint. A big X on the back. A slashed stripe. Not official. Just quick. Ugly. Dehumanizing.

The goal wasn’t to imprison anymore. It was to erase. Fast. Strip identity. Break people before they even made it to the camps.

It did succeed. And most did not leave.

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