Olga Wachtel Olga Wachtel, 72675

Only in Auschwitz were ‘new arrivals’ selected for work tattooed on their left forearm, displaying in dark blue or black ink their camp serial number. Jews selected for murder in the gas chambers were neither registered nor tattooed. History has yet to shed light on the introduction of this physical emblem. The question as to why tattoos were not imposed on prisoners of other concentration camps is unanswered.

In Auschwitz, SS camp leaders encountered a problem in late 1940. The rampant death rate of inmates made it difficult to identify corpses once their clothing showing the registration number had been removed for re-use.

Jewish women entering Auschwitz at the end of March 1942 were the first to be tattooed with four-digit numbers. Two inmates arrived from the men’s camp to perform the task, first with an impractical metal stamp, then with a single and finally a double needle device. The procedure lasted 30 seconds. Lou Sokolov, the chief Auschwitz tattooist, together with his assistant, marked more than 200,000 inmates. Soon more men were required to do the job. In 1944 women were also recruited as tattooists.

The tattoo had three functions: to mark and humiliate prisoners, to prevent their escape and to expedite the identification of corpses already stripped of their uniforms.

Following liberation some survivors hastened to have the physical reminder of their humiliation removed; only a scar remained. Later, others used their numbers as pin numbers or as lucky betting numbers, especially at horse racings or Lotto games.

The visibility of the tattoo elicits different reactions. Some people are bewildered, not knowing what it means. Others realize that the tattoo bearer had managed to survive the horror of Auschwitz.

In recent years, some grandchildren of survivors have elected to be tattooed with the Auschwitz number of their grandparent. Is it acceptable to transform the Nazi Auschwitz tattoo into a Jewish symbol of Holocaust remembrance? The debate is ongoing.

Olga Wachtel (nee Ehrmann): “Polish prisoners were sitting at the table and they did the tattoos. They said, ‘Give me your left arm’ in German. They had sharpened pieces of wood which they dipped into liquid and pierced my skin with lots of tiny holes to make my number 72675. My mother was tattooed after me with the next number 72676. My husband came to Auschwitz six months after me and he did not get a tattoo.”