Interesting Memory

[sfhogman]

I find that recent events have put me in mind of a coffee shop that I used to patronize for breakfast on Sunday mornings. It was your standard sort of place in West Portal, San Francisco, a Penny Lane stretch of restaurants, groceries, pharmacies and such along perhaps five blocks. This was in the late 70's.
The shop was run by a plump little blonde lady in her fifties, always bustling about, serving coffee, taking orders and working the register. She always reminded me of a sweet little mother hen, greeting everyone with an Eastern European accent that I could never quite place.
Her husband did the cooking...Max was the exact opposite of his wife - dour, and not speaking unless spoken to. He wasn't angry or hostile; just removed, with no desire to interact. Turned inward, it seemed.
Odd couple. It was a mystery to me how Max could be that way around his cheery wife, and why she would put up with it.
Then, one day, as Max was setting my breakfast down in front of me, I saw my answer:

Tattooed along the inside of Max's left arm was a line of numbers...

 

[gjgalligan]

I'm sure there are here that have no idea what that means, just like me/

 

[Ride1949]

Deleted.

 

[crstrode]

I'm sure there are here that have no idea what that means, just like me/

This statement demonstrates a deficiency in education and an excess of indoctrination.

 

[RC44Mag]

Jewish gulag prisoner during WWII.

Gulags were/are Soviet work camps and don't believe they tattooed prisoners. On the other had Germans did tattoo prisoners( Jews) in concentration camps as you know.
in the mid 90's I did construction in a home in Rego Park, Queens. Little old, Jewish couple owned the house. I was there for a couple weeks. One day I noticed some pictures on a dresser which included pictures with Steven Spielberg. I asked the woman and she said he reached out to camp survivors while researching Schindler's List. She even showed me a certificate of thanks from the director and her tattooed arm. I didn't press to hard Although I wanted to.

 

[ned]

A bit of a tangent but…Out of the Ice. .this is an astounding book about a kid who went to Russia with his father in the 50s. the father worked for Ford and was setting up a Ford factory in Russia. He became a skydiving phenomenon…then wound up in the gulag. A movie was made starring Willy Nelson….I cannot imagine and never saw it….surviving that would make anyone dour.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...usg=AOvVaw3g39bZ7o-rgF4s5YKXVD_C&opi=89978449

 

[Watertender]

My grandpa had neighbors who were Jewish. The husband was gotten out of Germany in the 1930s and became British Army SAS during WW2. The wife was Polish from Lodz and had the camp number on her arm until she died.

The story I heard about the husband was that he was one of the 1st troops into one of the camps and spoke to a German officer about surrender. The officer said "I take no orders from a Jew". He shot the officer between the eyes and said NEXT in German. The next one was more than willing to discuss the matter....

 

[Jeepnik]

The Germans tattooed not only Jewish prisoners, but all prisoners in the camps.

 

[eveled]

I remember hearing/ reading somewhere that some of the Germans tattooed themselves as part of their cover story after the war.

I always found it hard to believe. Because they would have to spend the rest of their lives pretending to be Jewish.

 

[PRichardson87]

I remember hearing/ reading somewhere that some of the Germans tattooed themselves as part of their cover story after the war.

I always found it hard to believe. Because they would have to spend the rest of their lives pretending to be Jewish.

If you ever have the chance to watch "Hunters" with Al Pacino this is not far from reality. Many former Nazis with useful intel and skill were brought here by our government and given jobs with new names and a fresh start.

 

[gjgalligan]

This statement demonstrates a deficiency in education and an excess of indoctrination.

Or maybe it means something I DID learn 50+ years ago that didn't immediately pop into my mind.......


OP said he was talking about what he saw in the 70s and even at that early date lots of tattoos were starting to show up, could have been for other reasons.

 

[Johnnu2]

He musta forgot "our" New Year Resolution....If you can't say something nice..............

J.

 

[Watertender]

I remember hearing/ reading somewhere that some of the Germans tattooed themselves as part of their cover story after the war.

I always found it hard to believe. Because they would have to spend the rest of their lives pretending to be Jewish.

The SS used to have blood type tattoos on the underside of the left arm. After WW2 the tattoo was used to recognize former members of the SS and many tried to remove it by various methods.

 

[kickingandscreaming]

My grandpa had neighbors who were Jewish. The husband was gotten out of Germany in the 1930s and became British Army SAS during WW2. The wife was Polish from Lodz and had the camp number on her arm until she died.

The story I heard about the husband was that he was one of the 1st troops into one of the camps and spoke to a German officer about surrender. The officer said "I take no orders from a Jew". He shot the officer between the eyes and said NEXT in German. The next one was more than willing to discuss the matter....

Sometimes you have to get their attention

 

[Wyandot Jim]

And now for the rest of the story. Only prisoners from Auschwitz were tattooed. So many of the other camp prisoners can't be identified by tattoos

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/holocaust-tattoos
Beginning in 1941, this registration consisted of a tattoo, which was placed on the left breast of the prisoner; later, the tattoo location was moved to the inner forearm. It was not only Jews who were marked: all prisoners other than ethnic Germans and police prisoners were tattooed. These tattoos were just one of the ways in which the Nazis dehumanized their prisoners. Despite the perception that all Holocaust prisoners were given tattoos, it was only the prisoners of Auschwitz after 1941 who were branded this way.


The Nazi plan displaced millions of families from all over Europe. Through their massive concentration camp system, with well over one thousand camps of various sizes, all designed to imprison innocent humans, considered sub-human by Nazi standards. Every human right was replaced by Nazi laws, rules and arbitrary decisions. Almost every major German city had at least a slave labor camp nearby. The inmates of these camps were forced under the pain of death to work for the German war effort, with no pay, inadequate food and other necessities to survive. Death camps, constructed for the sole purpose of mass executions by means of poison gas, shootings, starvation, disease, and torture were used by the Nazis to exterminate those fellow humans, men, women children and infants, by design.

There are those among us, who say the Holocaust didn't happen at all. Or maybe a few people were killed, but not millions. Historical facts have proven time and time again, that Nazi Germany, planned and implemented their plan to rid Europe of those whom they considered sub-human. Accurate numbers for exactly how many humans died as a result of the Nazi plans are simply not available and never will be. Research by some of the worlds most able historians place the number of Holocaust victims murdered by government policy to be not less than twelve million and probably more.

During the Holocaust, it is estimated that the Nazis established approximately 15,000 labor, death, and concentration camp.

 

[Jeepnik]

My father’s unit was one of those who saw Buchenwald. He rarely spoke of his experiences. But one evening after I got back he made a simple statement. “After Malmady the quit taking SS prisoners. After Buchenwald they quit taking prisoners.”

I recall his post war nightmares. I wonder how many of those were of Buchenwald. All of the books, photos & documentaries could never truly reveal what actually happened. Or how it affected those in the camps and their liberators.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Pictures of Buchenwald that your Dad witnessed.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/buchenwald-photographs

 

[Watertender]

A family friend was in the 291st Engineer Battalion in WW2. He was involved in blowing up the bridges at Stavelot Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge and cleaning up the Malmedy Massacre. He had nightmares for the rest of his life over it.

 

[harley08]

I find that recent events have put me in mind of a coffee shop that I used to patronize for breakfast on Sunday mornings. It was your standard sort of place in West Portal, San Francisco, a Penny Lane stretch of restaurants, groceries, pharmacies and such along perhaps five blocks. This was in the late 70's.
The shop was run by a plump little blonde lady in her fifties, always bustling about, serving coffee, taking orders and working the register. She always reminded me of a sweet little mother hen, greeting everyone with an Eastern European accent that I could never quite place.
Her husband did the cooking...Max was the exact opposite of his wife - dour, and not speaking unless spoken to. He wasn't angry or hostile; just removed, with no desire to interact. Turned inward, it seemed.
Odd couple. It was a mystery to me how Max could be that way around his cheery wife, and why she would put up with it.
Then, one day, as Max was setting my breakfast down in front of me, I saw my answer:

Tattooed along the inside of Max's left arm was a line of numbers...

The Na-i s got to him. I lived across the street from a couple and they were both in a Na-i camp before the US army rescued them. They were hard working good neighbors.

 

[oliver507]

My Father-in-Law was one of the soldiers that liberated Buchenwald. He only mentioned it once to me (vet-to-vet). He absolutely hated the Nazi’s.