Holocaust Tattoos: An Embodied Representation of Intergenerational Trauma and Grief
Authors: Susan Cadell, Reisa Klein, Melissa Reid Lambert, & Mary Ellen Macdonald
Background
Many of those interned in Auschwitz during the Holocaust had a number tattooed on their arm (Apel, 2002; Schult, 2017). These tattoos can now be seen as an embodied public record of the attempted extermination of Eastern European Jews during the Second World War.
Rationale
As Holocaust survivors are aging and dying, these bodily archives are disappearing, leading to a period described as the “fourth wave” of public Holocaust memory during which no living eyewitnesses remain. In the face of this loss, some descendants are choosing to tattoo copies of these numbers on their bodies as well as other commemorative Holocaust symbols. These practices are particularly significant in light of the Jewish scriptural proscription against tattoos.
Design
This project used interviews to explore the meaning of these tattoos within a context of rising antisemitism and the social significance of making Jewish identities more visible.
Results
Eight interviews were completed with people with tattoos as well as tattoo artists. Analysis focused on meaning-making, grounded in a symbolic interactionist approach.
Conclusion
Tattoos have long carried cultural meanings (Cadell et al., 2022); these numeric tattoos are very culturally specific, resisting historical Jewish practices aimed at “passing” in North American and European society. Thus, they afford a unique opportunity to explore both issues of identity and of marginalized, obscured, or silenced family trauma, the hallmarks of intergenerational trauma and grief. This project has shed light on how this practice participates in (re)negotiating Jewish identity in a contemporary context, as well as how it both shapes and communicates grief.
References
Apel, D. (2002). Memory effects: The holocaust and the art of secondary witnessing. (Original work published Rutgers University Press)
Cadell, S., Reid Lambert, M., Davidson, D., Greco, C., & Macdonald, M. E. (2022). Memorial tattoos: Advancing continuing bonds theory. Death Studies, 46(1), 132–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1716888
Schult, T. (2017). From Stigma to Medal of Honor and Agent of Remembrance: Auschwitz Tattoos and Generational Change (pp. 257–291). Universitätsverlag Winter. https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-151344