Identification in Nazi camps

Long after the war, a Holocaust survivor reveals his arm tattoo.

Identification of inmates in Nazi concentration camps was performed mostly with identification numbers marked on clothing, or later, tattooed on the skin. More specialized identification was done with specific cloth emblems on the clothing and also with certain armbands.

Numbers

A practice was established to tattoo the inmate identification numbers. Initially, in Auschwitz, the camp numbers were sewn on the clothes. With the increased death rate it became difficult to identify corpses, since clothes were removed from corpses. Therefore the medical personnel started to write the numbers on the corpses' chests with indelible ink. Difficulties increased in 1941 when Soviet POWs came in masses, and the first few thousand tattoos were applied to them. This was done with a special stamp with the numbers to be tattooed composed of needles. The tattoo was applied to the upper left part of the breast. In March 1942, the same method was used in Birkenau.

Metal stamps turned out to be impractical, and later numbers were tattooed with a single needle on the left forearm.

The tattoo was the prisoner's camp number, sometimes with a special symbol added: some Jews had a triangle, and Romani had the letter "Z" (from German Zigeuner for "Gypsy"). In May 1944, the Jewish men received the letters "A" or "B" to indicate particular series of numbers. For some unknown reason, this number series for women never began again with the "B" series after they had reached the number limit of 20,000 for the "A" series.^[1]

• ID numbers
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  Long after the war, Auschwitz survivor Sam Rosenzweig displays his identification tattoo.

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  Holocaust survivor Rose Schindler shows the number tattoo on her arm to a U.S. Navy serviceman.

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  Number tattoo visible on the arm of camp survivor (and, in this photo, 1963 courtroom witness) Eva Furth.

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  Newly liberated Buchenwald survivor shows his ID tattoo.

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  Just-liberated Ebensee concentration camp survivors wear (and some show to the camera) metal tags bearing ID numbers on cord bracelets or necklaces.

Cloth emblems

Colored inverted triangles were used in the concentration camps in the Nazi-occupied countries to identify the reason the prisoners had been placed there. The triangles were made of fabric and were sewn on jackets and shirts of the prisoners. These mandatory badges had specific meanings indicated by their color and shape. The system of badges varied somewhat between the camps. Such emblems helped guards assign tasks to the detainees: for example, a guard at a glance could see if someone were a convicted criminal (green patch) and thus likely of a "tough" temperament suitable for kapo duty. Someone with an "escape suspect" mark usually would not be assigned to work squads operating outside the camp fence. Someone wearing an F could be called upon to help translate guards' spoken instructions to a trainload of new arrivals from France.

Detainees wearing civilian clothing (more common later in the war) instead of the striped uniforms were often marked with a prominent X on the back.^[2] This made for an ersatz prisoner uniform. For permanence, such Xs were made with white oil paint, with sewn-on cloth strips, or were cut (with underlying jacket-liner fabric providing the contrasting color). Detainees would be compelled to sew their number and (if applicable) a triangle emblem onto the fronts of such X-ed clothing.^[3]

• Some examples of ID cloth badges
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  Nazi camp ID-emblems in a 1936 German illustration.

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  Red triangle emblems of a political enemy on a Dachau detainee's clothing. The white cloth-tape above bears the ID number 28320. ^

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  Single-triangle badges in various colors visible on Sachsenhausen concentration camp detainees.

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  Museum sign shows distinguishing emblems used at Auschwitz.

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  At, Mauthausen, Soviet POWs have SU painted on their clothing (in the manner of the Auschwitz marking-chart in this gallery).

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  Sachsenhausen detainee with glasses in the foreground wears a two-color double-triangle ID-emblem.

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  Disabled Jews with double-triangle cloth badges: a black triangle on a yellow triangle, meaning "asocial Jews". Buchenwald, 1938.

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  F (French) on a red triangle (political enemy) and ID-number 31299 on the Buchenwald-issue clothing of Dr Joseph Brau. ^

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  At times, the backs of civilian-style clothing got an X marking to make an ersatz prisoner outfit --this Buchenwald specimen shows traces of an X (which was later scrubbed off and then covered-over with a cloth scrap). ^

Armbands

Armbands were used within the camps to identify kapos, camp "police" (detainees assigned to keep order among their fellow detainees), and certain work crew leaders. Armbands were also in use among detainees sent to perform forced labor in factories outside the camps.

• Some period examples of ID armbands
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  Theresienstadt detainee Else Waldmann's armband for use during assignment to forced labor in a factory outside the camp.

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  Forced labor squad armband with cloth emblem indicating a Jehovah's Witnesses detainee.

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  Danish detainee wears a D armband during assignment to forced labor in factory outside the camp.

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  A kapo leader at Salaspils concentration camp with a Lagerpolizi (camp police) armband.

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  Buchenwald survivor explains to a visiting delegation some brutal methods of keeping order in the camp; he seems to have been a prisoner-functionary helper of the guards since he wears a Lagerdienst (camp service) armband.

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  ID-armband of a kapo leader.

See also

• IBM and the Holocaust
• Nazi concentration camps
• Nazi concentration camp badges

Notes

Bibliography

• FAQ of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nazi concentration camp badges.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tattoo identification in Nazi camps.