What arm was the number on during the Holocaust?

Answer 1

NUMBERS

Although details are not complete regarding treatment of the Holocaust victims, it seems that not all of them had their bodies marked with a number. Also, of all the concentration camps in Nazi Germany, it appears that only the Auschwitz group of camps (e.g. Auschwitz 1, Auschwitz 2 (Birkenau) and Auschwitz 3 (Monowitz) actually implemented prisoner numbering in a systematic way. This began in 1940, and at first the number was sewn onto the prisoner's uniform.

Body marking did not start until 1941. The number was written or tattooed maybe on the chest, the back, or the left forearm; some were marked on the leg. Sometimes the number included a letter prefix to indicate the 'type' of prisoner. For example, the prefix 'AU' was used for Soviet prisoners of war. Those destined for immediate execution were often not marked with a number.

BADGES

Starting with Poland in November 1939, and then spreading to ther countries under Nazi domination, all Jews were legally requierd to wear badges which identified them as belonging to this particular religious/ethnic group. As an example of the seriousness of this law, the Jewish Community Council of Bialystock in 1941 warned the community that "severe punishment -up to, and including death by shooting-, is in store for Jews who do not wear the yellow badge on back and front."

In the concentration camps, other badges with different shapes and different colors were introduced to identify other groups. They were worn on the chest or on the arm, sewn to the fabric of their coats, on the left side.

For more details, and documentary photographs, see 'Related links' below this box.

Answer 2

The first series of prisoner numbers was introduced in May 1940, well before the practice of tattooing began. This first series was given to male prisoners and remained in use until January 1945, ending with the number 202,499. Until mid-May 1944, male Jewish prisoners were given numbers from this series. A new series of registration numbers was introduced in October 1941 and remained in use until 1944. Approximately 12,000 Soviet POWs were given numbers from this series (some of the POWs murdered at Auschwitz were never registered and did not receive numbers). A third series of numbers was introduced in March 1942 with the arrival of the first female prisoners. Approximately 90,000 female prisoners were identified with a series of numbers created for female prisoners in March 1942 until May 1944. Each new series of numbers introduced at Auschwitz began with "1." Some Jewish prisoners (but not all) had a triangle tattooed beneath their serial number. In order to avoid the assignment of excessively high numbers from the general series to the large number of Hungarian Jews arriving in 1944, the SS authorities introduced new sequences of numbers in mid-May 1944. This series, prefaced by the letter A, began with "1" and ended at "20,000." Once the number 20,000 was reached, a new series beginning with "B" series was introduced. Some 15,000 men received "B" series tattoos. For an unknown reason, the "A" series for women did not stop at 20,000 and continued to 30,000. A separate series of numbers was introduced in January 1942 for "reeducation" prisoners who had not received numbers from the general series. Numbers from this new series were assigned retroactively to "reeducation" prisoners who had died or been released, while their superseded general-series serial numbers were reassigned to new "general" arrivals. This was the only instance in the history of Auschwitz of numbers being "recycled." Approximately 9,000 prisoners were registered in the "reeducation" series. Beginning in 1943, female "reeducation" prisoners were given serial numbers from their own new series, which also began with "1." There were approximately 2,000 serial numbers in this series. Beginning in February 1943, SS authorities issued two separate series of numbers to Roma (Gypsy) prisoners registered at Auschwitz: one for the men and one for the women. Through August 1944, 10,094 numbers were assigned from the former series and 10,888 from the latter. Gypsy prisoners were given the letter Z ("Zigeuner" is German for Gypsy) in addition to the serial number. The camp authorities assigned more than 400,000 prisoner serial numbers (not counting approximately 3,000 numbers given to police prisoners interned at Auschwitz due to overcrowding in jails who were not included in the daily count of prisoners). Cited: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007056>.

Answer 3

If you're talking about the numbers that were tattooed onto peoples' arms, that was their concentration camp number. It didn't matter how many numbers there were; it only signified that you were this next prisoner in the concentration camp. It's almost like the SS were counting how many people were passing through the gates of the camps.

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Note:

1. The only camp to tattoo numbers on prisoners was the Auschwitz group.

2. Only prisoners selected for work were tattooed.