So they marched us through the gate with whips and beatings and
dogs jumping on us. We came to a huge brick building. They shoved
us...shoved us into the huge brick building, and there were
prisoners and SS telling us what to do next. It was tables, long
tables. The first area, where we had to undress, strip our
clothing. There were hooks behind us. You put the clothing
through a piece of wire, hang the clothing up, take our shoes
off, put the shoes on the floor. Next table were the barbers, the
camp barbers, where they shaved our head, they cut our hair,
shaved the entire body. They said it's for hygiene. Then we moved
to another table where the tattooing was done. So, the tatoo was
done on the left forearm. There was one person who would rub
the...a little piece of dirty alcohol on your arm, and the other
one had the...had the needle with the inkwell, and he would do
the numbering. So my number is 65,316. That means there were
65,315 people numbered before me, tattooed before me. After the
tattoo...tattooing was done, they put us where they gave us the
clothing, but not what we came with. They gave us, issued us a
striped brown cap, a jacket, striped jacket, a pair of striped
trousers, a pair of wooden clogs, and a shirt. No socks or
underwear. Then the last area, when they gave us the uniform,
they gave us two strips of cloth. The cloth, I would say, was
about six inches long, maybe inch-and-a-half wide. And it [was]
star...starred with the Star of David, corresponding with the
number on your left forearm, sewn on your left breast and on the
right pant leg. And then the last item, which was the most
important item that we received, was a round bowl. And this bowl
was the lifeblood of your being. First of all, without it you
couldn't get the meager rations that we got. And second, the
bathroom facilities were almost non-existent.