Epilogue

This epilogue argues that war is a profound reminder of human materiality and fragility. Conflicts are made and decided through the interaction of human beings and the material world. The inquiries started in this book offer the foundation for a historically informed investigation of this interaction in the new forms of warfare in an age in which the virtual often seems to have more presence than the material. Indeed, new technologies have radically changed the materiality of war. Rather than physically encountering the enemy on the battlefield or entering homes as they invade enemy territory, for example, many soldiers are now sitting thousands of miles away launching missiles or operating drones that do first the reconnaissance and then the killing for them.

The Bricolage of Death

This chapter focuses on elite prisoners in Nazi concentration camps, where block elders and other elite prisoners appropriated clothing and personal goods stolen from other inmates to instantiate their social status in the camp. Differences among prisoners existed and were integral to the Nazi socio-racial planning and running of the camp. To survive, prisoners had to “make a career,” that is, to achieve success in the terms of the camp. Using survivor accounts, the chapter then explores the ways in which fashion and dress manifested in a social world on the precipice of immediate death. Even though it developed autonomously, prisoner fashion was ultimately one of the tools with which the SS created a “ruling class” of prisoners who acted in their stead. It was the prisoner elite that reflected these negative ideals and values into the depths of the camp, from which the SS tried to keep a healthy distance.