History of Sorts

The title is Holocaust Tattoos, but it was only in Auschwitz that the new arrivals selected for work received a tattoo. As a rule, they were tattooed on their left forearm, displaying in dark blue or black ink the camp serial number assigned to them.

Prisoners sent directly to the gas chambers were not registered or tattooed. More than 400,000 serial numbers were assigned at Auschwitz.

In the spring of 1942, the SS began systematically tattooing all incoming Jewish prisoners. This form of identification was applied to very ill prisoners, predominantly Poles that had transferred from the camp hospital at Auschwitz I to the newly constructed camp at Birkenau (Auschwitz II). In early 1943, the practice of tattooing prisoners at the Auschwitz camp complex expanded. Following the escape of a female Polish prisoner in February, the Camp Commandant’s Office decided that all incoming prisoners would henceforth be tattooed on the…