Why did they start making tattoos with numbers in Auschwitz: the story of one daring escape

Many people know that prisoners in Nazi concentration camps had a tattoo with a number on their arm. But few know that this practice only existed in Auschwitz. It was introduced after an escape by several Poles. Unfortunately, thousands of prisoners who had nothing to do with this event suffered because of this daring action.

In Nazi Germany and the territories it occupied, there were about 40,000 camps and prisons in operation from 1933 to 1945. The concentration camps were particularly notorious. They were divided according to their purpose: forced labor camps, camps for "enemies of the state" and death camps created for the mass extermination of people. The largest and most terrible of them was considered to be the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, also known as Oswiecim.

At first, prisoners at Auschwitz were simply listed and numbers were sewn onto their clothes. But the camp was huge, the death rate was high, and clothes were often passed from one person to another. Record-keeping became chaos. Then the Nazis decided: they needed something that couldn’t be removed or lost. That’s how tattoos with numbers appeared — first for Soviet prisoners of war, and then for everyone else.

The marks were tattooed on the chest, and later on the forearm. This was a way to quickly identify a person, alive or dead. Almost everyone believes that the Nazis introduced this measure to keep track of prisoners, following the German desire for order. But this is not entirely true, because such tattoos were not done in other concentration camps.

The concentration camp Auschwitz (Auschwitz in German) began operating in 1940 in occupied Poland near the city of Oswiecim. It was originally intended to hold Polish political prisoners. In 1941, captured Soviet soldiers began to be brought to Auschwitz.

The small camp could not cope with the large number of prisoners, of which there were many at the beginning of the war. Therefore, Auschwitz was expanded, and a second camp was built nearby by the prisoners - Auschwitz-2, which was also called Birkenau. Thus, the largest death factory in human history, known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, was created.

The conditions of detention were monstrous. This is evidenced by the fact that of the first 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war brought to Auschwitz in September 1941, only about 300 people remained alive by 1942. They were treated the worst. They were forced to do the hardest work, were given almost no food and no medical care. For any offense, often fictitious, there was only one punishment - death.

It was Soviet prisoners who were the first to be marked with tattoos. According to the order of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht from January 16, 1942, all Soviet prisoners of war in the camps were to be branded with tattoos on their forearms. Later, the order was cancelled, but the practice of markings was preserved in Auschwitz. But after one extraordinary case, numbers began to be applied to everyone without exception.

On June 20, 1942, four Polish political prisoners escaped from Auschwitz. Their plan could have been the plot of a gripping movie. Although escapes had happened before, and sometimes succeeded, none could compare to this one in audacity. And it happened on the eve of Himmler's visit to the concentration camp.

The prisoners didn’t just climb over the electrified fence – they managed to drive out of the camp in a luxury Steyr 220 car right through the main gate. The one with the sign “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work makes you free”). The organizer of the escape was Kazimierz Piechowski, a political prisoner who had been in Auschwitz since 1940.

In 1942, Pekhovsky was included in a group of prisoners who serviced warehouses with uniforms, including officers' uniforms. One Sunday, when the Germans were not in the warehouse, he and two comrades stole a uniform. The fourth escapee worked as a mechanic in a garage - from there the escapees stole a German car.

Kazimierz Piechowski lived to a ripe old age and died in 2017 at the age of 98. He often told the story of his escape, which he said was 99 percent luck. The escapees changed into German uniforms, got into a car and drove up to the main gate of the camp. Of course, they had to talk to the guards. But none of them spoke German well enough to hold a conversation.

The prisoners did not have any documents, which they would certainly have been asked to show. At first, they planned to simply drive through the gates, and if they were stopped, to ram the exit. But this option meant immediate pursuit. Auschwitz was located deep in the rear, and there was almost no chance of escaping pursuit.

But at the last moment, Pekhovsky, who was driving, decided to take a desperate step. He leaned out of the window and shouted rudely at the guards: "What are you staring at? Open the gates, your mother!" The stunned guards decided that the top brass was driving past them, and without further questions they carried out the order. The car broke out of the camp territory and soon disappeared from sight at full speed.

This escape became a legend. Of the many attempts to escape from Auschwitz, only 144 were successful, and this case is one of the most famous. But it cost those who remained behind the barbed wire dearly.

The success of Piekhovsky and his team resulted in death for hundreds and torture for thousands. The incident was reported in the evening during the assembly, when the prisoners were missing. That same day, the Nazis sent the barracks elders from which the prisoners had escaped to the so-called "hunger barracks." This was a place where people were kept locked up, given only water, until they died of starvation.

After the escape, the entire concentration camp was driven out onto the parade ground. The prisoners were forced to stand at attention for a whole week, from dawn to dusk. Those who fell were beaten and set upon by dogs, forcing them to rise. Those who could not rise were shot on the spot. More than a hundred people died as a result of this inhuman execution.

But the Nazis did not stop there. They arrested relatives of the escapees who lived in different cities in Poland. They were taken to Auschwitz and hanged in the central square of the camp. Among those executed was Piechowski's younger sister. The administration's final decision was to tattoo numbers on all prisoners of the camp without exception.

Tattooing with numbers became a mandatory practice at Auschwitz, affecting more than 400,000 people. They were applied to the forearms of everyone, even newborns. Now it was easy to distinguish a prisoner from a camp employee or a soldier: it was enough to ask to see their hands, and everything became clear. Numbers continued to be applied to Auschwitz prisoners until the camp was liquidated in January 1945. After the war, survivors wore these marks as a reminder of their experiences. Over time, they became not only a tool of control, but also a symbol of the era.

Of course, neither Piechowski nor his comrades knew that their escape would have such terrible consequences. Do you think the brave Poles would have fled if they had known that many innocent people would suffer?