During the Holocaust, the systematic tattooing of prisoner numbers on the forearms of inmates was only done at Auschwitz. The practice was implemented due to an audacious escape on the last day of spring in 1942. The history of tattooing the incarcerated during the Holocaust is not well documented, but it has since come to symbolize the brutality of the concentration camps and the dehumanization of Jewish people. For those who survived, their tattoos remain a symbol of resilience in the face of unspeakable terror.
Incomprehensible to me and my generation that anyone living and past the age of 10 doesn’t know what the holocaust was. We gave our son Maus when he was about that age. We later gifted a set to our youngest. While I grew up knowing about Nazis from my dad I also knew from the kids in my block, two mothers had prison camp tattoos on. A frail polish Catholic woman who married a GI. The other a Jewish woman, the mother of a boy in love with my older sister, and whose father was a journalist.
We were raised to understand that there were those among us in our own society who not only didn’t care if we lived or died (looking at “compassionate conservatives” who vote against Obamacare, or child tax credits)(Cheney among them), but some who actively seek to harm fellow humans.
Thank you for sharing this history. My country is scaring the shit out of me. My biggest worry is that people have become numb to what's going on here and won't vote. We have to VOTE BLUE, NO MATTER WHO!!!!!
Thank you for sharing the story. The ingenuity and courage of those heroes makes me admire them ever since I learned about the escape (although not in school). I will never be as brave or merited as were these my countrymen and I have only big respect for them. I hope I will never have to experience what they had.
May I ask, James, if you could please write a post that would deal with the false term "polish death camps"? I hate to see such wrong names in the internet and all help to educate the world that those were German death camps would be greatly appreciated.
Incomprehensible to me and my generation that anyone living and past the age of 10 doesn’t know what the holocaust was. We gave our son Maus when he was about that age. We later gifted a set to our youngest. While I grew up knowing about Nazis from my dad I also knew from the kids in my block, two mothers had prison camp tattoos on. A frail polish Catholic woman who married a GI. The other a Jewish woman, the mother of a boy in love with my older sister, and whose father was a journalist.
We were raised to understand that there were those among us in our own society who not only didn’t care if we lived or died (looking at “compassionate conservatives” who vote against Obamacare, or child tax credits)(Cheney among them), but some who actively seek to harm fellow humans.
I totally agree about Liz - tigers do not change their stripes!
Agree! My 10yo is learning more about the holocaust and nazi fuckwipes from our favorite sweary historian.
Thank you for sharing this history. My country is scaring the shit out of me. My biggest worry is that people have become numb to what's going on here and won't vote. We have to VOTE BLUE, NO MATTER WHO!!!!!
Merci beaucoup for this, James. Didn't know this story, and it's so personally meaningful for so many reasons.
Thank you for sharing the story. The ingenuity and courage of those heroes makes me admire them ever since I learned about the escape (although not in school). I will never be as brave or merited as were these my countrymen and I have only big respect for them. I hope I will never have to experience what they had.
May I ask, James, if you could please write a post that would deal with the false term "polish death camps"? I hate to see such wrong names in the internet and all help to educate the world that those were German death camps would be greatly appreciated.
A friend of mine introduced my to his uncle who had the tattoo. I got the chills just seeing it.