Why were the Jews stamped?

Answer 1

There are three reasons why Jews who entered concentration camps were burned with an identifying number.

1) Conflict with Jewish Practice: The Nazi leadership, contrary to most common thought, was actually well-acquainted with Jewish traditions and beliefs. This does not mean that they respected them in any way; they most certainly did not. However, it is important to note that they did numerous acts in direct contravention to Jewish beliefs such as making the forced labor uniforms out of both linen and wool, incinerating the dead, killing the women and children before killing the men, and numerous other infractions. Burning a number into a person's arm is in direct contravention to the Jewish belief that a person should not have a permanent engraving in their flesh.

2) Dehumanization: Branding of humans is a long-developed process and was most prominent during the American (as in North and South American) slave enterprise. Branding a person was way to turn that person into a piece of property of chattel. Chattel, like any other form of property, needed identifying markers so that everyone would know to whom the chattel belonged and would more readily return it. It also had the effect of differentiating the owned man from other free men as something inferior.

3) General Maintenance: A Concentration Camp or Death Camp was a large facility with numerous deportees and a large German managing staff. In order to coordinate all of the various events, procedures, and other forms of slaughter, an incredibly detailed list of the goings on needed to be kept. Assigning every Jew a number helped in this endeavor because accurate accounts of intake could be made.