Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Other Labeling Mechanisms

Besides tattoos, badges were also used by the Nazi's to label camp prisoners. Different colors represented different groups like immigrants, homosexuals, gypsies, and Jehovah's witnesses.

Personal Stories: Narrative Truth

The following narratives from various Holocaust survivors demonstrate the many meanings that the tattoos given at Auschwitz can have. In some cases, the tattoo and its combination of numbers instilled a sense of hope into the victims who realized that the tattoo meant another day of life. Others experienced an extreme dehumanization as a result of becoming a number. Regardless of the meaning of the tattoo, these personal narratives confirm the nature of the selection process at Auschwitz: those who were not tattooed proceded to the gas chambers, and those who were tattooed became yet another laborer at the camp. These tattoos are concrete proof of the genocide of the victims that passed through Auschwitz.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Tattooing: Miso Vogel

A testimony from Holocaust survivor Miso Vogel can be found here.

Tattooing: Szlamach Radoszynski

"In November 1940 the Nazis established a ghetto. By April 1943 my entire family had either died in the ghetto or had been deported to the Treblinka death camp. After the ghetto uprising, I was deported to Auschwitz. Day after day my job there was to shovel dirt over discarded, still-smoldering ashes of cremated victims. I kept wondering whether I, too, would end up the same. But I was sustained by the fact that the number tattooed on my arm--#128232--added up to 18, the Jewish mystical symbol for life."

--From an interview with Szlamach Rdoszynski, Holocaust survivor

Tattooing: Jakob Frenkiel

"At age 12, I was put in a group of men to be sent to labor camps. More than a year later, we were shipped to Auschwitz. The day after we arrived, my brother Chaim and I were lined up with kids and old people. I asked a prisoner what was going to happen to us. He pointed to the chimneys. 'Tomorrow the smoke will be from you.' He said if we could get a number tattooed on our arms, we'd be put to work instead of being killed. We sneaked to the latrine, then escaped through a back door and lined up with the men getting tattoos."

--From an interview with Jakob Frenkiel, Holocaust Survivor

Tattooing: Jozef Paczynski

"They checked us all, brought us to a lower level, and there everybody got a file: age, last and first name, nationality, where from, where and how many golden teeth one had, and they also asked, 'what kind of diseases does your family suffer from?' Why did they want to know all that?
"It was clear. When one died, got shot, killed, they would first look into the mouth and check for the gold teeth. And, when the information about his death was sent to his family, they would give thereason for death as the same as his father’s. I received a card – I did not know what it was – but on it was written 121. That was my camp number. Shall I show it?
"Because, at the very beginning, they did not tattoo the numbers. One carried it in his cloth. But, during the Spring of ‘43 when there was such a great mortality, everybody got a tattoo. I have here a number everybody is interested in, 121.

"Now, really very shortly, I had an incident. I got sick. I had typhoid. I was really very sick, could not walk, had a temperature of 40 C. They accepted me into the hospital. Of course, prisoners worked there; they washed me in slightly cold water and they wrote on my chest with a chemical pen. That was in Autumn 1942 – number 121. There were no tattoos then; I said, “don’t write this down on me“ and he said 'I have to, I have to.' And I know that when one died, in order to know who died – number, number."

--From an interview with Jozef Paczynski, barber at Auschwitz

Tattooing: Elie Wiesel

"In the afternoon, they made us line up. Three prisoners brought a table and some medical instruments. 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."

--From Elie Wiesel's, Holocaust Survivor, book: Night, page 42

Tatooing: Alice Kern

"The tattooing happened on a hot afternoon, September 1944. They asked for artists and after some girls volunteered for this unknown artistic job we all went outside. After passing some long tables we entered a room where the girls were waiting with the tattoo needles.

"I was scared as when I had to face a doctor at home. When the girl took my left arm and saw me turning pale, she said with a smile, "This will not hurt. Much to my surprise it did not hurt, at least physically. The pain was that from then on I was a number: Neunund siebzig-nul-drei (A-7903).

"We were also assured that because we were entered in a book we would be saved and not killed. How naive we were to believe this, but anything, even a lie, was better than facing the possibility that we might be killed. One had to cling to every hope."

--From Alice Kern's, Holocaust Survivor, book: Tapestry of Hope, pages 100-101

Monday, February 27, 2012

Reconciliation: Tattoos as A Symbol of Pride

Other Holocaust survivors see their tattoos as a sign of survival and a concrete reminder to future generations of the atrocities that occurred at Auschwitz. These survivors use the tattoos to educate others and through this education, attempt to reconcile with their past.

“My name is 174517,” the Italian author and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi wrote years after his liberation from Auschwitz (1). “We will carry the tattoo on our left arm until we die… It seems that this is the real, true initiation into the camp.”

As I think back on that night recording names in Monticello I remember something Maala told me. She showed me her left arm which had only three numbers tattooed on it from her imprisonment in Auschwitz. I was surprised that there were only three but she explained to me why. Later in life, long after the Holocaust, she decided to get the tattoos removed. She had half of them taken off when she realized that for her erasing the numbers just didn’t feel right. Those tattoos had become part of who she is. Those numbers can be the most awful reminder of her horrible past but that past is still true and very much a part of her identity.

http://holocaust.hklaw.com/essays/2006/20062C.htm

This story about three holocaust survivors who found each other years after WWII highlights the effects holocaust tattoos still have on the lives of survivors. They have consecutive numbers tattooed on their arms and have connected with each other in an effort to reconcile with their past:

"I rolled up my sleeve and sure enough — I stood exactly ahead of him in line at Auschwitz," he said. The discovery "was a moment of great emotion, great excitement. We went through it all together. We are like two parallel lines that never met."

Here's a video of the men reuniting in Israel:

Badges of honor: Survivors’ tattoos displayed

“I never though about it until I got this invitation,” said Sander. In the Auschwitz death camp where Sander and his wife were inmates, Sanders said, he didn’t think much of it. “The hunger took hold of the pain. For 19 months, I was called by my number and had to respond.”

While Jewish law forbids tattoos, Rabbi Anchelle Perl, rabbi of the Chabad of Mineola, said that Holocaust survivors stand in a separate category.

“They should be worn as a badge of honor, this kind of tattoo could be a reminder to the world,” said Rabbi Perl, who also spoke of a recent case in Israel. In 2008, Ron Folman, a son of Holocaust survivors, asked a tattoo artist to make him an exact copy of the number his father had on his arm. His father initially refused to cooperate, but later accompanied his son to the tattoo parlor.

http://chabadworld.net/page.asp?pageID=%7B7D84254D-93DB-4539-B3BF-973458D54821%7D

Disappearing Ink

July 23, 1999|By Jeremy Manier, Tribune Staff Writer.

Although laser removal has become common in the last decade for people who want to get rid of gang insignias or recreational tattoos, it is rare for victims of German camps to seek the procedure, according to laser specialists and camp survivors. For many people, the tattoos serve as one of the most potent and tangible symbols of Nazi atrocities.

Expunging such marks, however, is not a choice made by many survivors of the German camps, especially the Jews who were targets of the Holocaust--Adolf Hitler's campaign of genocide that sent 6 million people to their death. The ever-shrinking ranks of people who lived through the Holocaust make many survivors even more determined to tell the stories behind their tattoos.

Elaine Welbel, a survivor of Auschwitz who lives in the Chicago suburbs, said she would never consider removing the emblem of her pain.

"I never wanted to have it there," Welbel said. "But the Nazis did this to me. They named me by this number: 4701. My grandchildren should know. This is the proof of where I come from. I am the person who came back from the ashes.

"Each time I speak to young people I show the number, this name of mine."

Reconciliation: Tattoos as Blemishes to Remove

These stories explore the feelings of some holocaust survivors that removing their tattoo is one method for reconciling with their past.

Badges of honor: Survivors’ tattoos displayed:

For a year and a half, Zelik Sander was known by the tattooed numbers on his arm. His wife, Sally, also a Holocaust survivor, was ashamed of the numbers on her arm.

“Someone told my wife that only a prostitute is tattooed,” said Sander, who lives in Port Washington. “She broke down, went to a psychiatrist, and had surgery to remove it. I covered mine for 30 years.”

http://chabadworld.net/page.asp?pageID=%7B7D84254D-93DB-4539-B3BF-973458D54821%7D

Disappearing Ink

July 23, 1999|By Jeremy Manier, Tribune Staff Writer.

But it took just 30 seconds of laser treatment in a Vernon Hills clinic earlier this month to start wiping away that bleak memory for Meilert, 79, a native of France who lives in Libertyville.
Meilert's decision to break with the past is rooted in his personal experience of the war. Meilert, who is not Jewish, received his tattoo when he was imprisoned along with many other French mechanics who intentionally produced faulty equipment at a German machine gun factory in Austria. He said the beatings and executions that happened there represent a chapter in his life that he would like to leave behind.

"Every time I wash and see it, my mind goes back there," Meilert said. "I hope when it's removed I won't have to think about those things."

Even for Jewish Holocaust survivors, however, the choice of what to do with such tattoos is a complicated one, with connotations that have changed over time.

Most Jews who had their tattoos removed probably did so soon after the war, in the years when many survivors were reluctant or even ashamed to be open about their experiences, said Peter Novick, a professor of history at the University of Chicago. Novick's new book, "The Holocaust in American Life," describes one episode involving a survivor of the Birkenau death camp who was a contestant on the 1950s television program "Queen for a Day."

Given the chance to be granted one wish, Novick writes, the woman replied, "Each time I look down at my left arm and see my tattoo I am reminded of my terrible past. . . . If only my tattoo could be removed!"

Social Truth: Religion Controversy Over Tattoos

In exploring the Social Truth behind the tattooing during the Holocaust at Auschwitz we're focusing on the common beliefs of the Jewish community. Tattoos have long been a controversial topic in Jewish tradition with some arguing that the torah forbids tattoos, while others argue G-d only forbids consented tattoos. Here we explore different stories about the Social Truth behind Holocaust Tattoos.

Tattooing in Jewish Law

By Rabbi Alan Lucas

http://www.hartman.org.il/Fck_Uploads/
Image/alan.lucas.2010.rli3.grad.jpg

The prohibition of tattooing is found in the Torah: "You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:28).

However distasteful we may find the practice there is no basis for restricting burial to Jews who violate this prohibition or even limiting their participation in synagogue ritual. The fact that someone may have violated the laws of kashrut at some point in his or her life or violated the laws of Shabbat would not merit such sanctions; the prohibition against tattooing is certainly no worse. It is only because of the permanent nature of the tattoo that the transgression is still visible.

The prohibition of tattooing throughout the halakhic literature deals only with personal, voluntary tattooing. With respect to the reprehensible practice of the Nazis who marked the arms of Jews with tattooed numbers and letters during the Shoah [Holocaust], the Shulhan Arukh [the authoritative 16th-century code of Jewish law] makes it clear that those who bear these tattoos are blameless: "If it [the tattoo] was done in the flesh of another, the one to whom it was done is blameless" (Shulhan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah 180:2).

Betzelem Elohim – What’s the deal with tattoos for the Jews?

Like many fun prohibitions, this one starts with Leviticus: “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:28). This would seem to show that making markings on oneself, such as cuts, are forbidden. Why then, would this be the case? Rabbi Allan Lucas, a contemporary Conservative rabbi, discusses this in his article on the subject of Tattoos and Judaism.

According to one interpretation, it is the permanent nature of the act that is problematic: “If a man wrote [on his skin] pricked-in writing, he is not culpable unless he writes it and pricks it in with ink or eye-paint or anything that leaves a lasting mark” (Mishnah Makkot 3:6). But Rabbi Simeon ben Judah disagrees, saying that it is only prohibited to inscribe the name of God.Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Idolatry 12:11) says Jews must not tattoo themselves because pagans did, so this could be perceived as an idolatrous act.

Here we see a descendent of a Holocaust survivor who wishes to tattoo the number of his father on his arm as a form of reconciliation. Despite disagreements about intentionally tattooing a relative's number, here again we see the reassurance that Holocaust survivors can keep their tattoos and abide by Jewish law.

Question:

My father had a tattoo from the concentration camps. I saw in a book (Halachic Questions of the Holocaust) that Holocaust survivors asked the Kovono Rabbi if they should have their tattoos removed. The rabbi answered certainly not, and that they should be worn as a badge of pride.
My question is: Would I be allowed, under these circumstances, to tattoo my left arm with the number of my father, who recently passed away. I know tattoos are contrary to the Torah, but this kind of tattoo could be a reminder to the world to not forget the Holocaust.
Answer:
I've never considered such a question and I thank you for bringing it to my attention. It is tragic that we even have to think about such a topic.
I would urge you not to have the number tattooed on your body, and I believe that most of those who endured the camps and the tattoos would also wish that their descendents not be tattooed, and davka with a number from the camps.
There are other ways perhaps to insure that the members of your family never forget his number, just as they will never forget him.
Consider sculpture, paintings, commissioning a print for each member of the family, a special mezuzah built from those numbers, etc.
Even though your intention is good, this tattooing would still be contrary to Torah tradition. Thanks again for writing and may the new year bring you and your loved ones only peace and blessing in a world at peace.

Best Wishes,
Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Denial

"I'm not a holocaust denier but I have to wonder why they tattooed numbers on their arms in 'death' camps?"
"If you were to come to my house to kill me, would you tattoo my first?"

This two posts, taken from a forum, were made recently, on the 29th of February, 2012. The authors of these posts question the truth of the identification tattoos given out at Auschwitz, and they serve as a microcosm for the larger denial movement.
As proved earlier in the blog, those people who did not make it past selection were immediately sent to the gas chambers without being tattooed. However, those who were chosen for labor were tattooed, and the Nazis did so for two reasons.

The act of tattooing Auschwitz inmates further dehumanized them. A narrative example of the tattoo's effects can be found here.
As the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum describes, "Initially, the SS authorities marked prisoners who were in the infirmary or who were to be executed with their camp serial number across the chest with indelible ink. As prisoners were executed or died in other ways, their clothing bearing the camp serial number was removed. Given the mortality rate at the camp and practice of removing clothing, there was no way to identify the bodies after the clothing was removed. Hence, the SS authorities introduced the practice of tattooing in order to identify the bodies of registered prisoners who had died." Therefore, although most of the inmates at Auschwitz never survived, tattooing was a reality at the death camp in order to keep track of those who died once they were stripped of their clothing. You can read more about the tattooing process here.

To see the denier's post and the consequent discussion, click here.