Скачать или смотреть Why this Canadian had his father's Auschwitz number tattooed onto his own arm

As Gary Kapelus grew up in Canada, his father, Jerry Kapelus, never talked about what it had been like to be tattooed in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in 1944. But Kapelus noticed that his dad never tried to hide or remove the tattoo, either; indeed, he often displayed it as he spoke to thousands of school children over the years about his experiences.

After Jerry died in 2021, Kapelus took up the mantle as a Holocaust educator, sharing his father’s story. Recently, at the age of 70, Kapelus decided to take one extra step: he got that same number, B-7619, tattooed on his own left arm.

The act is a growing trend among descendants of Holocaust survivors, known as “re-marking”, taking ownership of something that was done against the will of the Nazi’s victims. The tattoos are done for many different reasons: some do it in defiance of their grandparents’ persecution, while others see it as a way to honour the six million killed. Kapelus’s motivation was to spark conversations.

On today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Gary Kapelus ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27.

Read more about Gary Kapelus’s father, Jerry Kapelus.
https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Jerr...

Why descendants of Auschwitz survivors are tattooing their own arms, in The CJN archives (from 2021).
https://thecjn.ca/news/tattooed-jews-...

Learn more about the (Re)marked project "Stories from the Skin" at the University of Waterloo.
https://storiesfromtheskin.com/

Credits

Host and writer: Ellin Bessner [email protected]
Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)
Music: Bret Higgins
Support our show

Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
https://thecjn.ca/newsletter/

Subscribe to North Star
https://thecjn.ca/arts/podcast-how-to/

Watch our podcasts on YouTube
   / canadianjewishnews  

Donate to The CJN + get a charitable receipt
https://thecjn.ca/donate/