Clothing A Camp

‘LET THEM WEAR WHAT YOU CAN SPARE!’ was the plea made by the United Yugoslav Relief Fund of America, as they appealed for donations of any and all clothing on behalf of those who had fled the 1941 Axis invasion of Yugoslavia. The plea spoke to one of a number of challenges faced by the Allies in the latter stages and aftermath of the Second World War; that of getting clothes onto the backs of the millions of refugees strewn across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Investigating how the newly established United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) went about this task reveals a truly international and collaborative effort by UNRRA itself, national governments, aid organisations and ordinary citizens to collect and distribute clothes to those in need. By focusing on one UNRRA camp in particular, El Shatt, an ex-British army base located in the Sinai Desert which was used to house mostly Partisan Yugoslavs from Dalmatia, we can see how refugees responded when supplies fell short. We can also understand how the specific camp environment influenced the production and wearing of clothes which offered refugees a rare opportunity to maintain a political and cultural identity during a time of displacement.

When UNRRA was established in 1943, it was intended to carry out a managerial and harmonising role over the various organisations that dealt with refugees and the displaced. In UNRRA’s own words, ‘A pooling of resources had won the war. A pooling of resources was needed to help win the peace’ (‘50 Facts about UNRRA’, Office of Public Information, UNRRA, 1947). A collaborative effort was required for the huge task at hand, as approximately sixty million people in Europe had been displaced by war (Reinisch, 2008) and an estimated two hundred million people in China alone required full or partial clothing aid (Roman, 1945). One key source of desperately needed garments for UNRRA was through the purchase of domestic and foreign military surpluses, on which UNRRA had spent over twenty million dollars by 1947. Other sources included contributions from ‘uninvaded’ member nations, but donations from philanthropists and aid organisations, such as the Red Cross, were important for clothing in particular.

Despite UNRRA’s international backing and financial power, supplies of clothing still fell short, particularly before peace in Europe in 1945 when military production and shipping remained the primary concern. In response, the Administration resorted to launching national clothing drives in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. The first of two clothing drives in the U.S. resulted in a haul of garments enough to clothe approximately twenty-five million of those in need, while the campaigns in Canada, Australia and New Zealand attracted seventeen million pounds of clothes. This, however, still did not suffice, as a second drive, described by authorities as the ‘Victory Clothing Collection’ was launched in the U.S. in early 1946, with the aim of procuring a further one hundred million items of clothing. Advertisements were placed in newspapers across the U.S, expressing the dire need of those affected by war and with details of how to make contributions. A National Committee of the United National Clothing Collection was also established, made up of the heads of religious, academic, trade and social organisations who were tasked with getting their groups involved with the drive. Community leaders, local groups (particularly church groups, the Scouts, JayCees, housewives clubs and the like) and ordinary citizens also responded to the plea for clothing, as they worked to get word out about the drives, coordinated pick-ups and repurposed community spaces into clothing collection depots.

Despite the extensive effort from both UNRRA and aid organisations, the logistical problems of wartime shipping and the sheer number of people in need, which included, those in newly liberated nations in Europe, displaced persons and POWs in camps in both Europe and the Middle East and those affected by war in the Far East, meant that at times clothing was still scarce. Responsibility therefore fell on refugees to clothe themselves. As Bieber (2020) has shown, El Shatt was notable for the extent of self-government exercised by refugees themselves, through the Refugee Central Committee (COZ). The COZ took responsibility for the organisation of labour in the camp, working on the basis that ‘every fit person should work’ as the refugees took up a range of jobs key to the running of a society. For their work they declined the offer of wages paid by the British authorities which was common in other camps, in a show of solidarity with the Partisans still in fighting Europe who received no wages (Bieber, 2020). The camp dressmakers and cobblers made do with the materials they found lying around the camp, mostly remnants from the camp’s time as an army base, repurposing them into shoes and garments. Shoes were especially scarce, meaning that almost all shoes were made in-camp. Male residents worked in makeshift factories constructed inside tents, where the young and old lined either side of long production tables, separating rubber soles from the upper leather part of old army boots. When old shoes ran out or could not be salvaged, rubber from old tires once used for military vehicles were cut and shaped into new soles, and leftover canvas and rope used to build tents were wrapped round lasts made by the camp’s carpentry workshop to finish the shoe, making a kind of basic slipper or sandal for residents to wear.

Making up for the shortages however was not just a man’s job. Female residents of the camp also contributed, but rather than working with the dirty and tough materials needed for shoes, they instead worked with fabric. At times of scarcity, canvas from tent walls was again used to make new clothes and patch up old ones, while UNRRA blankets and army balaclavas were unpicked and refashioned into sweaters and women’s shawls. A few sewing machines were also available to the refugees, one of the more high-tech tools in the camp, but much was also done by hand. Women’s work also involved the maintenance of clothes, as domestic responsibilities continued despite displacement, albeit adapted to fit the new environment. Corrugated iron sheets were repurposed as washboards, against which women communally scrubbed clothes clean. Clothes were then draped over the guy ropes outside the tents to dry, before being hung up on the interior tent structures for storage.

The extreme conditions of the Sinai desert also influenced the way residents wore and used clothing. Residents were frequently subjected to scorching hot sun in the day, below freezing temperatures at night and regular sandstorms that would engulf the camp. Winter coats and headscarves once worn in Dalmatia for protection against the cold winters, now acted as shields against the sharp sand flying through the air. Residents appear to have given up the battle against the sand and dust, accepting that it was impossible to keep it off themselves and out of their tents. Adults and children in the camp frequently went barefoot, possibly because of the shoe shortage, likely a more pertinent problem for children who would have quickly grown out of the shoes they arrived with, but also perhaps a practical consideration in that walking, running and playing in the deep sand was likely hindered by footwear. The shoes made by the Yugoslavs demonstrate adaptation to their new environment, as sandals made in the camp’s shoe factory were more sandal-like than the stiff, leather footwear they arrived with.

Clothing however served more than just a practical purpose. Being one of the few possessions that the refugees owned, it offered an opportunity for political and cultural expression within the camp. The vast majority of El Shatt’s residents were partisans: the partisan flag flew over the camp’s tent lined ‘streets’ and portraits of Tito watched over his displaced comrades. Despite no longer physically fighting or aiding the partisan cause, the trademark hat, the ‘titovka’, named after the Soviet ‘pilotka’, was common within the camp. Sewn front and centre on most hats was the unmistakable red star of communism, leaving little doubt as to where the refugees loyalties lay. Yugoslav national culture was also maintained by the traditional dress worn particularly by female residents. Older women and young children wore clothes typical of their native Dalmatia; a white blouse, fitted corset, long skirt with an apron layered on top and a headscarf either tied under the chin or at the nape of the neck. Young children also wore more decorative yet still recognisably Balkan style clothing when singing and performing traditional dances to folk music played on an accordion. Despite being forced from their homes and land, they would not allow their Yugoslav identity to be erased as easily.

To UNRRA, clothing was a supply and logistics problem. To the ordinary citizens who donated disused garments it was an opportunity to help those in desperate need. To refugees clothing was a means of protecting themselves from the elements, but more than that, it offered work and purpose, and at a time of displacement, a means of holding onto an identity under threat.

***

Ellie’s research was funded  by a College of Arts and Humanities undergraduate internship at the University of Glasgow.

Image Captions

The two photographs in this piece were taken by Otto Gilmore for the U.S. Office of War Information in 1944. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, [LC-DIG-fsa-8d37929, LC-DIG-fsa-8d38026]. Available at:  https://www.loc.gov/item/2017870011/,  https://www.loc.gov/item/2017870107/.

The UNRRA clothing drive cartoon, entitled ‘The Destitute People of Europe are Desperately in Need of Clothes’ is by Otto Soglow and was published in ‘The People’s Voice’ in Montana, USA on 30 March 1945. Available at: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86075189/1945-03-30/ed-1/seq-2/