Personal Stories: Narrative Truth

The following narratives from various Holocaust survivors demonstrate the many meanings that the tattoos given at Auschwitz can have. In some cases, the tattoo and its combination of numbers instilled a sense of hope into the victims who realized that the tattoo meant another day of life. Others experienced an extreme dehumanization as a result of becoming a number. Regardless of the meaning of the tattoo, these personal narratives confirm the nature of the selection process at Auschwitz: those who were not tattooed proceded to the gas chambers, and those who were tattooed became yet another laborer at the camp. These tattoos are concrete proof of the genocide of the victims that passed through Auschwitz.