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When does social hierarchy break down? Can social status acquired during peacetime affect the structure of mortality in prisoner societies facing long-term existential threat? We study two distinct Holocaust settings: the Theresienstadt ghetto and the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. We find that social status provided substantial survival protection in the partially self-administered prisoner society of Theresienstadt, where it was as helpful for women as for men, even under high survival pressure. However, social status was no longer effective in supporting survival in Auschwitz, where there was no semblance of prisoner self-administration.