When the tattooing was over, the SS man looked at me and said, "Do you know what this number is all about?"
"No, sir," I answered.
"Now you are not human anymore. You are a number and you better remember this number, because that's what you will be called from now on."
They put the same number on my shirt, and so I became B4990. But in my mind, I was still a free person.

A penetrating memoir by the founder of the Dallas Holocaust memorial Memorial Center, who has spoken since 1950 to an estimated 5000,000 people about the Holocaust. Mike Jacobs was born in the small Polish town of Konin, where the Jewish community dated from 1397. When Poland was invaded by the Nazis in 1939, Jacobs spent five years confined in ghettos and concentration camps, but he kept some hope alive in his heart. He shared that hope by helping others whenever he could - and by undermining Nazi efforts, no matter the risk to himself. A story without hatred or bitterness, Holocaust Survivor teaches us that when we recognize that freedom comes from within, we are never completely powerless.