Performing to survive: simulation, camouflage, and theatricality in Nazi concentration camps

This article examines the ways in which simulation, mimicry and camouflage contributed to deportees' survival and allowed them to subvert Nazi oppression. The camp society seemed permeated by ritual-like, theatrical and symbolic action, which shaped human relationality and power relations. I explore simulation and camouflage as survival strategies, offering a reflection on the meaning of performing in the camps. Conceiving the Lager as a space of performance, I contend that actors constructed clandestine codes of signification, taught to each other and constantly improved, which allowed them to deceive the perpetrator, resist the dehumanizing ethos, and foster ingroup solidarity.