I borrowed this story from the website DW. I have excerpted parts of it. If you would like to go to the full article, please click on the link.
Soon, there will no longer be any living Holocaust survivors. But in
Israel, some of their grandchildren are choosing to have themselves
tattooed with the concentration camp ID numbers on their grandparents'
arms.
Holocaust survivors are disappearing and, with them, the memory of what they went through.
But some of their children and grandchildren have found a way to preserve the past - by tattooing on their arms the very numbers the Nazis inscribed on their victims. The crude mark that had been a concrete and painful reminder of the Holocaust has turned into a strong symbol of solidarity for some of the survivors' family members.
Arik Diamant, a 33-year-old from the Israeli city of Herzliya, came up with the idea four years ago to duplicate his late grandfather Yosef Diamant's Auschwitz identification number on his own arm.
... "I told him that if it bothered him at all, I wouldn't do it. At first, he was really shocked and asked me why I would want to do something like that," remembered Diamant. "But then he stopped me and said, 'When you have a grandchild and he asks you what it is, will you tell him about me?'"
Diamant's story has been worked into a documentary film to be released soon: "Numbers," produced by Uriel Sinai and Dana Doron.
Ayal Gelles' arm on the right and his grandfather Avraham Nachshon's on the left
Ideology of numbers
Diamant is one of a growing number of young Israeli Jews who are deciding to preserve their grandparents' stories in this way. About three years ago, Ayal Gelles, a 28-year-old from Tel Aviv, tattooed the number of his grandfather, Avraham Nachshon, during a trip to South America. ... Gelles added that the connection the tattoo gives him to his grandfather is just as meaningful to him as the ideology behind it. But unlike Diamant, Gelles didn't tell his grandfather about the tattoo.
"Maybe he guessed when my mother took a photo of his arm to send to me," speculated Gelles. "Today he says that if I had asked him, he would tell me not to do it. But it doesn't bother him today. Maybe he objected because of religious reasons." In Judaism, tattoos are prohibited according to some interpretations of the book of Leviticus.
Recognition, continuation, appreciation
Gelles and Diamant say that when people notice their tattoos, the reactions are mixed - but mostly positive. Still, they know the topic is loaded and, for many, it is difficult to get used to the concept.
... Professor Dina Porat, a Holocaust scholar at Tel Aviv University, agreed that the general public is not entirely ready for such drastic methods of commemoration, but pointed out that Holocaust remembrance is becoming more personal.
"In the late 1940s in Israel, many survivors actually asked their doctors to remove their numbers. The interesting thing is that with these recent cases of tattoos we see a sort of opposite expression: people who are willingly doing it, not as victims, but as a way of recognition, continuation and appreciation," explained Porat.
...
The tattooed numbers are the strongest symbol of the camps
Outdoing the rules of time
According to research conducted by the Brookdale Institute for the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust victims in Israel, there are currently 190,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel. In 2025, that number will have dropped to 46,000. If the tattoo trend continues, the mark left by the Nazi concentration camps will long outlive the survivors themselves.
Diamant says he appreciates the fact that his tattoo starts deep conversations with those who notice it. And Gelles describes his tattoo as a refreshing departure from repetitive public discourse on the Holocaust.
"We're taking a detour," he said. "We're leaving the clichés behind and we're going back to the story from a different point. It's a different kind of memorial, and maybe it's what people need today."
But some of their children and grandchildren have found a way to preserve the past - by tattooing on their arms the very numbers the Nazis inscribed on their victims. The crude mark that had been a concrete and painful reminder of the Holocaust has turned into a strong symbol of solidarity for some of the survivors' family members.
Arik Diamant, a 33-year-old from the Israeli city of Herzliya, came up with the idea four years ago to duplicate his late grandfather Yosef Diamant's Auschwitz identification number on his own arm.
... "I told him that if it bothered him at all, I wouldn't do it. At first, he was really shocked and asked me why I would want to do something like that," remembered Diamant. "But then he stopped me and said, 'When you have a grandchild and he asks you what it is, will you tell him about me?'"
Diamant's story has been worked into a documentary film to be released soon: "Numbers," produced by Uriel Sinai and Dana Doron.
Ayal Gelles' arm on the right and his grandfather Avraham Nachshon's on the left
Diamant is one of a growing number of young Israeli Jews who are deciding to preserve their grandparents' stories in this way. About three years ago, Ayal Gelles, a 28-year-old from Tel Aviv, tattooed the number of his grandfather, Avraham Nachshon, during a trip to South America. ... Gelles added that the connection the tattoo gives him to his grandfather is just as meaningful to him as the ideology behind it. But unlike Diamant, Gelles didn't tell his grandfather about the tattoo.
"Maybe he guessed when my mother took a photo of his arm to send to me," speculated Gelles. "Today he says that if I had asked him, he would tell me not to do it. But it doesn't bother him today. Maybe he objected because of religious reasons." In Judaism, tattoos are prohibited according to some interpretations of the book of Leviticus.
Recognition, continuation, appreciation
Gelles and Diamant say that when people notice their tattoos, the reactions are mixed - but mostly positive. Still, they know the topic is loaded and, for many, it is difficult to get used to the concept.
... Professor Dina Porat, a Holocaust scholar at Tel Aviv University, agreed that the general public is not entirely ready for such drastic methods of commemoration, but pointed out that Holocaust remembrance is becoming more personal.
"In the late 1940s in Israel, many survivors actually asked their doctors to remove their numbers. The interesting thing is that with these recent cases of tattoos we see a sort of opposite expression: people who are willingly doing it, not as victims, but as a way of recognition, continuation and appreciation," explained Porat.
...
The tattooed numbers are the strongest symbol of the camps
Outdoing the rules of time
According to research conducted by the Brookdale Institute for the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust victims in Israel, there are currently 190,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel. In 2025, that number will have dropped to 46,000. If the tattoo trend continues, the mark left by the Nazi concentration camps will long outlive the survivors themselves.
Diamant says he appreciates the fact that his tattoo starts deep conversations with those who notice it. And Gelles describes his tattoo as a refreshing departure from repetitive public discourse on the Holocaust.
"We're taking a detour," he said. "We're leaving the clichés behind and we're going back to the story from a different point. It's a different kind of memorial, and maybe it's what people need today."
No comments:
Post a Comment