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."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517103,00.html

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."

Read more at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-07-23/news/9907230151_1_tattoos-jewish-holocaust-survivors-nazi-atrocities