01/27/2026
We should never forget
Agi Geva’s mother made her promise never to remove the tattoo inked on her arm at Auschwitz-Birkenau. “This is proof of us being there,” she told her daughter. “The letter A and the number.”
At age 14, Agi was registered as a prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and was forcibly tattooed with her prisoner number.
For Agi, the pain of receiving the tattoo was surpassed by the pain of being stripped of her identity.
“They kept on telling us, "You have no names from today. You are just numbers."
Agi survived four camps, forced labor, and a death march before she was liberated by American troops in April 1945.
During the Holocaust, Auschwitz was the only camp where prisoner numbers were tattooed. After liberation, Auschwitz survivors were able to shed the uniforms, but the tattoos remained.
Photo: USHMM
