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.
Hear more about Gary Kapelus on The CJN’s flagship North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner.
Read more about Gary Kapelus’s father, Jerry Kapelus.
STORIES FROM THE SKIN 