Selection Tattoo: During the Holocaust, camp prisoners received tattoos only at one location, Auschwitz, which consisted of Auschwitz I (Main Camp), Auschwitz II (Auschwitz-Birkenau), and Auschwitz III (Monowitz and the subcamps). Incoming prisoners were assigned a camp serial number which was sewn to their prison uniforms. Only those prisoners selected for work were issued serial numbers; those prisoners deemed unworthy of work were sent to the gas chambers and no number was given.
In the beginning, the SS authorities marked prisoners who were in the infirmary or who were to be executed with their camp serial number; the SS authorities introduced the practice of tattooing in order to identify the bodies of prisoners who had died.
The process began by using a special metal stamp, holding interchangeable numbers made up of needles approximately one centimeter long. This allowed the entire serial number to be punched at one time onto the prisoner's upper chest. Ink was then rubbed into the wound.
Eventually, a single-needle device was introduced, which pierced the outlines of the serial-number digits onto the skin. The site of the tattoo was changed to the outer side of the left forearm. However, prisoners from several transports in 1943 had their numbers tattooed on the inner side of their left upper forearms. Tattooing was performed during registration. Again, prisoners sent to the gas chambers never received tattoos.
In the beginning, the SS authorities marked prisoners who were in the infirmary or who were to be executed with their camp serial number; the SS authorities introduced the practice of tattooing in order to identify the bodies of prisoners who had died.
The process began by using a special metal stamp, holding interchangeable numbers made up of needles approximately one centimeter long. This allowed the entire serial number to be punched at one time onto the prisoner's upper chest. Ink was then rubbed into the wound.
Eventually, a single-needle device was introduced, which pierced the outlines of the serial-number digits onto the skin. The site of the tattoo was changed to the outer side of the left forearm. However, prisoners from several transports in 1943 had their numbers tattooed on the inner side of their left upper forearms. Tattooing was performed during registration. Again, prisoners sent to the gas chambers never received tattoos.
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Selection
- Once Jews were unloaded they were separated into male and female lines. Usually those that were around the age of 14 and older were sent to labor camps in order to work. However, the elderly and the women who had children were sent straight to the death camps and down into the gas chambers to be killed. SS doctors were those in charge of determining if one was fit for work in the labor camps or not. The Jews selected for work in the labor camps were taken to a building where they had their clothes taken, they were tattooed with a registration number, shaved of all body hair, disinfected and then put through either an ice cold or painfully hot shower. Once showered the prisoners were given their striped pajamas, a hat and wooden clogs. They were then taken to the blocks to start their lives in the labor camp.