I was ten years old when I saw the numbers tattooed on her arm

[catmandu57]

It was 1968 in Kansas City, we were at a community center my friend and I, playing basketball, when the ball rolled over to her and I ran after it.
It was then that the sleeve of her sweater fell, and the numbers were revealed.
Being a child I was transfixed, having never seen anything like it, so I asked her what it was.
She had been in Germany, her family was sent to the camps, she was the last survivor, she explained it gently so that I could understand, though I didn't until some years later, really understand what she was talking about.
The experience has been with me ever since, I haven't forgotten, I think though that too many Americans have forgotten just how cruel humans can be to each other.
I hope that in the days to come people will remember what is at stake.
VOTE!

[savemefromdumbya]

1. yes I know

it is imperative we don't let it happen again

[AtomicKitten]

2. Last time I saw those numbers was in the late 1970s.

Rather breathtaking to even recall.

[hobbit709]

3. I too have seen the numbers

on some of my relatives, and I remember the Soviet occupation troops on the streets of my home town when I was a kid. I have no love or respect for authority of any kind when it comes to despotic governments.

[catmandu57]

18. Can I ask where?

Was it Prague?

[hobbit709]

20. Vienna

It was divided like Berlin with 4 zones until 1955. I lived in the American sector but most of my relatives were in the Soviet sector. I had an American passport but my mother had Austrian papers

[sui generis]

4. my grandfather and uncle

dachau, "would have been" uncle was 14 and didn't survive.

We have not at all forgotten. Some Americans simply have never known, and having not known, do not believe.

[barb162]

6. That's such an important point you're making

There are a lot of disbelievers in the world, people who have no idea of the history of World War II and nazi Germany in the 1930s and the manner in which an entire society basically went along actively or passively to do some truly terrible things to innocents.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. .

[Richard D]

8. I was just looking for this to post.

Thank you.

[Richard D]

7. I've seen them twice . . .

. . . on two women, sisters, who were the only survivors of large families. Both are still alive, and one of them has written two books about her experiences and gives lectures about it. Each time I see those numbers I get some of the horrors they survived.

[ronnykmarshall]

12. I've seen them twice as well.

Once on an arm of an elderly lady on the subway in SF and another on the arm of an elderly man at my gym in LA.

[agingdem]

9. My mother...

sole survivor of a family of seven.

[elehhhhna]

10. Saw my first in '75, at the age of 16.

Our HS French teacher.

[Sequoia]

11. I worked with a woman who had the number on her forearm.

She and her sister were spared because they were blonde, blue-eyed and sung in a choir.

[mainegreen]

13. Seen those numbers once. Very shocking to see in person. nt

[seemunkee]

14. Seen them many times

At the Kosher deli I used to go to and on other residents at the home my wife's grandfather lived in.
My MiL didn't get them, instead she spent her teen years tending the sick in a partisan camp while her father blew up bridges. You can't see her scars.

[catmandu57]

15. It's something one never forgets

The experience has been haunting me lately, I've never seen her again and don't remember her name, but I can see her forearm like it's in front of me now.

[Terri S]

17. it's the same for me..

Our next door neighbors in Brooklyn were like a second family for us. The whole neighborhood was like extended family back then. I still see the fading purple tatoo on Mrs. Saltzman's wrist. I don't even remember the words, but I remember her speaking softly and so gently.. I was about 10. I can still see it as if it was right in front of me.

It always amazed me that someone who'd been through such horror could be so loving and gentle, not the least bit of hatred or bitterness in her soul. An amazing woman. She'll never how much that moment stayed in my mind and how much she meant to me.

[catmandu57]

19. That was what amazed me as well

She was a very gentle and tender person after suffering the worst that humanity can do. Welcome to DU Terri:hi:

[wryter2000]

16. A childhood friend's grandparents had them

They showed me their numbers.

There's another thread around here somewhere about an older lady who'd spent time in an internment camp right here in the US. One of the doctors where I work was born in one of those.