Prisoner badge with number worn in Buchenwald concentration camp

"We were told to roll up our left sleeves and file past the table. The three "veteran" prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name." (Wiesel 42).

Upon entering the concentration camp, all Jews are given a number and now are called that number by everyone around them. Although close family members will still call prisoners by their name, they are used to being called by a letter and a coupe numbers by the time they leave the camp. They can’t talk back or else they will be beaten or even killed, so they must respond to their given “name”.

When the prisoners enter the camp they are told to strip off their clothes and give the few items they were allowed to bring with them to the camp. They were given new clothes and put through a disinfecting shower and then they proceeded to the camp. The only thing left of them is their identity and who they believe they actually are. As they go weeks and months in the camp, prisoners even seem to forget both of those things. It seems like the only thing they have left is a name, which is almost as empty as they are, but at least it is a piece of them. When this is taken away from the prisoners, it doesn't seem as if they have anything left but a body. Almost all beliefs they came into the camp have left them when they leave and not even a name is the same as when they came in. It is completely unfair to take away the one thing that is intangible, but they take it away anyway.
The camp is completely unfair for everyone in them but to make it more unimaginable they take away the only thing they think they have left.