Tattoos tell a wartime survival story
VISITORS to the Jewish Holocaust Centre often ask the volunteer guides about their Auschwitz tattoos. Now these marks are the centre of attention in a new exhibition.
WHEN twins Stephanie Heller and Annetta Able were transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in December 1943, they immediately attracted the attention of the Nazi Angel of Death Dr Josef Mengele.
Dr Mengele was conducting medical research on breeding twins for the Third Reich and selected the 19-year-old twins for his medical experiments.
But first they were branded with tattoos, as part of the processing for all new arrivals at the notorious Nazi camp.
The stories behind the tattoos of Stephanie and nine other volunteer guides from Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) are told in the exhibition, Marked: Holocaust Survivors and Their Tattoos, which opened last month.
Stephanie, an 86-year-old grandmother from North Balwyn, spent 15 years as a guide at the centre and says it is important to educate visitors about the Holocaust.
“It was important to get the message across as part of the education process,” she says. “I would talk to schoolchildren visiting the centre and they often asked me to roll up my sleeve to see the number on my arm.”
Stephanie explains an unusual feature of her tattoo -— three of the six digits are darker than the other numbers.
“The tattooist gave me the same number as another women, who went hysterical when told she would have to get a new tattoo, so I offered to have my number changed, which was done on the last three digits.”
Stephanie and Annetta survived Auschwitz and went to Israel after World War II, later settling in Melbourne.
In 1985, the twins travelled to Jerusalem to give evidence before an international inquiry that found that Dr Mengele should stand trial for crimes against humanity. The Nazi doctor escaped Germany after the war and found refuge in South America. He was never found.
The top-rating current affairs program 60 Minutes filmed their trip to Israel for the Mengele inquiry.
JHC curator Jayne Josem says that each of the survivors featured in the exhibition — Kitia Altman, Lulek Bron, John Chaskiel, Jack Fogel, George Ginzberg, Stephanie Heller, Willie Lermer, Tuvia Lipson, Danka Schnall and Fred Steiner — has an amazing story to tell.
“The photos in the exhibition are artistic while also being very powerful,” she says.
Exhibition photographer Andrew Harris explains that he usually focuses on travel photography, but a visit to the JHC and a talk with survivors Altman and Eileen Wright led to the exhibition on tattoos becoming a reality, even though it took two years to ­complete.
“The guides are always being asked about their tattoos by visitors to the museum, and everyone has a special story,” he says. “The tattoo is a very powerful image.”
Harris says the photos in the exhibition are in black-and-white and portray the guides in a natural way.
“The exhibition is about the volunteers and not only the tattoos.”
The exhibition was officially opened on October 13 by Dr Helen Szoke, commissioner of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.
It includes a history of the tattoo process by historian Dr Gideon Greif.
The Marked: Holocaust Survivors and Their Tattoos exhibition is at the Jewish Holocaust Centre, 13 Selwyn Street, Elsternwick until December 16. Enquiries: www.jhc.org.au.
DANNY GOCS
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