Behind every scar is a story. But these are scars like no others: the numbers tattooed on Auschwitz prisoners by their Nazi captors.
Six decades later those numbers remain etched on the forearms of these Holocaust survivors. The numerals are still round and clear, the ink now a grayish-blue upon the skin. They have become part of their bodies, part of themselves. And they are the most lasting physical reminders of what happened when racism became genocide.
Numbered is a project dedicated to the study of such scars and the people who bear them.
These numbers, inflicted by the Nazis to erase a prisoner's human identity and to ensure easy identification once they presumably met their deaths, have long lost their original purpose.
But carried into the present on these individuals' bodies they have taken on a life of their own. Their tattoos mark them as walking, living exhibits of the darkest period in human history. Whether they are shaving in the morning or in the park eating an ice cream cone under a tree, their trauma is always on display for both themselves and the outside world to see.
A survivor named Sofia, photographed for this project, says that when she is asked why she did not have her tattoo surgically removed she replies: "Why should I? People should remember what happens when you brand humans like cattle."
Numbered aims to locate thirty numbered survivors. It will include studio portraits and photos documenting moments in the survivors’ lives and examine their own, as well as society's attitudes towards the tattoos. A group portrait with numerous participants will be included. Multimedia clips and a documentary based on the still photographs are currently in production.
The project sets out to see how these survivors reclaimed their lives as people again, and not as numbers. Photographing them in their current everyday settings, the focus is not a retelling of the past, but how they relate to the digits on their arms as they live their lives today.
One survivor, Vera, says that an ignorant bank clerk in the United States once commented on her tattoo: "Hey Lady, that's cool!" Another, named Danny enjoys exposing his arm next to Germans to see their awkward response. And Leo, an Austrian survivor, refers to the tattoo as his "medal."
Sixty-five years after the end of World War II, the personal portraits and testimonies in Numbered will stand as a contrast to the obliteration of human identity intended by the Nazis. Numbered reminds us of the depths of human cruelty but also the power of individuals to prevail and triumph.
Throughout the world only a few thousand numbered survivors are still alive. The youngest are already in their 80s. In the past six months three survivors who were scheduled to be part of this project died before they could be photographed.
Now is our last chance to reach those who remain.
