An identified person or group has discovered metal stamps with embedded needles that were used on Jews at Auschwitz and which Holocaust experts said may be the first proof of original tattooing equipment at the death camp.
The director of the Auschwitz Museum, which is located on the site of the death camp, said the discovery “is one of the most important finds in years,”
The identity of the founder and how and where the stamps were located has not been revealed except for the information that they were found in Poland.
Nazis used the small stamps, to tattoo numbers on the bodies of inmates.
Museum director Piotr Cywinski was quoted by British media as saying, “We never believed that we would get the original tools for tattooing prisoners after such a long time. The sight of a tattoo is getting rarer every day as former prisoners pass away, but these stamps still speak of the dramatic history that took place here even after all these decades. They will become a valuable exhibit in forthcoming exhibitions.”
The metal stamps were put into a wooden block to form a number and then plunged into the prisoners’ skin, and ink was then rubbed into the wound to make the number appear.
The evil system was used only for a short period of time because it was too inefficient for the Nazis as they rounded up tens of thousands of Jews, most of whom were gassed, tortured to death or murdered.
Instead, the Nazis used a penholder to hold a single needle to tattoo prisoners.