This paper examines the existence and purpose of fashion in the Nazi concentration camp. I propose that the costly pursuit of fashion represented a crucial drive to regain human dignity: an urge that was almost as essential to surviving the lager as satisfying hunger. The significance of fashion in Auschwitz and other concentration camps suggests that the desire to enhance one's personal appearance is elemental, and that its pursuit is central to feeling human. "By day, I'm dressed like a person of quality: no patches on my striped pants and jacket, a well-cut cap with a peak in front, shoes that are almost wearable." (Paul Steinberg, writing of his experiences as a slave laborer in Auschwitz in Speak You Also: A Survivor's Reckoning, 2000. He was 17 in 1944.)