Following the publication in "Israel Today":
The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court today (Tuesday) heard a petition filed against an auction of Nazi tattoo stamps and decided to issue a restraining order against the sale.
So apparently the rare items will not be sold, but will be transferred to the Yad Vashem Museum.
First, the authenticity of the tattoo stamps will be checked, although in a preliminary assessment made in the past, prior to the sale offer, the item appears to be original.
Tattoo stamps // Photo: Jonathan Shaul,
After learning of the intention to hold an auction of Nazi tattoo stamps, the petition was filed by the Center for Holocaust Survivors' Organizations against the sale.
The petitioners stated that the rare items should pass through Yad Vashem, and should not be traded because it is a step that harms the victims and survivors.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit also said he was opposed to the auction.
Exciting: Pope Francis kisses the tattooed hand of a Holocaust survivor // Photo: Reuters
On the other hand, the Chulmans auction house in Jerusalem rejected the claim and stated in its response that this was not a step intended to harm.
The seller himself announced that he was considering transferring the item to Yad Vashem, and canceling the sale.
In addition, he apologized if anyone was harmed by the intention to sell.
Tiny and made of metal
The Nazi tattoo stamps are tiny, a total of 1.5 cm long and 1 cm wide, made of metal with signs of wear and tear, and all eight easily fit into the palm of an adult.
But as small as their dimensions are, so great is the horror they remember and symbolize: these are eight stamps used by the Nazis to tattoo numbers on the hands of prisoners in the Auschwitz extermination camp, and next week they will be put up for sale at the Zollman's auction house in Jerusalem.
Eight stamps used by the Nazis // Photo: Jonathan Shaul,
This is a relatively rare item, of which only a few like it exist in the world.
The tattoo of the prisoners' numbers on their bodies began in Auschwitz in the fall of 1941. While in many cases the tattoo was done using a hot needle that was repeatedly inserted into the prisoner's body, in some the tattoo was done in a more regular way using a wooden mold into which metal plates with numbers were inserted.
Immediately after removal, apply ink into the bleeding holes.
Initially, only numbers were tattooed on the prisoners, but as of May 1944, due to the large number of prisoners, letters were also added. The Jewish men received prisoner numbers in series A and then in series B. The auction house says that the original intention was to continue marking prisoners in consecutive series in Latin order, 20,000 people in each series, but the liberation of the camp in January 1945 disrupted the plan. The stamps offered for sale also show the letter C, and the auction house estimates that this is probably a preparation for the next stage of the extermination. "There was a time when such stamps were used in Birkenau, but it was a relatively short period," said Holocaust researcher Rabbi Avraham Krieger, who heads the Shem Olam Institute.
The auction house also features a rare marketing and instruction booklet from Aesculap, which produced the stamps. In the brochure, the company states that the product is intended for cattle marking, but according to experts in the field who have examined the stamps for the auction house, cattle marking stamps should be at least ten times the size of these tiny seals. "The stamp collection symbolizes more than any other Holocaust item the tragedy and the terrible Holocaust that befell our people known to the horrors," notes Meir Zolman, owner of the auction house. "The prisoners have their identification numbers, like the animals of the forest, so that no Jew will, God forbid, even by mistake or accident, escape the fate of extermination."
Naftali First (89), an Auschwitz survivor, clearly remembers how the tattoo was done by him.
"The number on my hand was made by a prisoner in Birkenau, when I was 12," he told Israel Today last night.
First is not happy with the sale.
"Items of the Holocaust, found after or during the Holocaust or estates of the deceased or murdered, should not become an auction. If there is such a thing, its place in the exhibits at Yad Vashem and not reach those over whom there is no supervision and no knowledge."
Zolman's says they hold certificates proving the authenticity of the items.