The impetus for this special issue of the International Journal of Historical Archaeology lie in the three seasons of excavation that took place at the forced labor camp of Lager Wick in Jersey between 2014 and 2016. The excavation was directed by Gilly Carr, funded by the British Academy in a joint project involving Gilly Carr and Marek E. Jasinski, and also involved the two guest co-editors, who were invited to dig in different years (Marek E. Jasinski in 2014, Claudia Theune in 2015, and paper contributor Ivar Schute in 2016). In addition the three guest editors of this special issue cooperated closely during excavations, surveys, and workshops at the Falstad Camp site in Norway led by Marek E. Jasinski in 2010, 2014, and 2015. This special issue was provoked by the many conversations on both sites regarding, initially, the rules, guidelines, and expectations produced by the many different regions and countries in Europe which dictate what is excavated and kept, and what is redeposited and carefully returned to the ground. This variation clearly had the ability to affect what was retained for study from camps in different countries, with a resulting knock-on effect upon what was published and / or included in exhibitions. As the excavation of Nazi camps is still a relatively newbut growingfield, excavators from all over Europe clearly have much to learn from and share with each other. It was for this reason that experienced colleagues from across Europe were invited to join the digs in Jersey and Norway. Insight from other camps, their layout,
The prisoners of the former concentrations camps were supposed to be deprived of their socialization by brutal dehumanization. Among other things, the use of blue-and-white striped prison clothes was meant to reinforce a homogeneous and uniform prisoner society. However, studies from a sociological perspective have shown that prisoners' societies were indeed diverse and structured, allowing individuals to develop strategies of survival within their -albeit limited -scope for action. In this article, prisoners' possibilities to act are discussed using the example of clothing -an omnipresent and visible medium. Various changes and alterations preserved in prisoner clothing from former concentration camps reveal open or secretive acts of individuals and thus provide insights into the different levels of action inside the camps.
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