The Auschwitz tattoo artist visits the field for the first time | Television and radio | Show world and television

When crossing those infamous and huge iron doors, under the disturbing sign ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’.

Knowing that he was about to witness the horror of his parents’s past and desperate to honor them, the accumulation of emotions left him shattered.

Before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps on January 27, 1945, the only son of the “Auschwitz tattoo artist”, the Slovak Jew Lali Sokolov (sometimes written Lale), was visiting the famous Extermination field for the first time in memory of their deceased parents.

His pilgrimage to the place of execution of six million of his Jewish compatriots was being filmed for a new Sky History documentary that would be transmitted on the anniversary.

Many readers will already be familiar with the incredibly moving love story of their parents documented in the 2017 best sell Harvey Keitel last year.

But for the first time, the only son of the couple has seen firsthand what his heroic parents endured and survived during World War II.

In an exclusive interview, Gary, 63, told Express: “He was absolutely terrified to go to Auschwitz, but he didn’t want to disappoint Dad.

“I didn’t know if I had the guts to do it, but there were many questions without an answer.

“However, while I crossed the doors, under Arbeit Macht Frei, my knees trembled so much that I had to stop filming until I could recompose myself and make my legs work properly. I sobb and felt like a coward. ”

The worst was yet to come for Gary when he was taken to a tour behind the camp and understood all the horror of what happened there 80 years ago.

“Crossing those doors was not even the most difficult part. The most difficult thing was to see the crematoriums. Dad said again and again “three cremates” before he died.

“I don’t think I cried like this in my life. When I left there I could see that the director also had his eyes as dishes and had to call his wife.

“Then I had no emotion left. I felt completely exhausted. It was emotionally horrible.

“But at the same time, following my parents’ steps was very special. I don’t think I would have felt closer to them than there. ”

Gary, Lali and Gita’s parents met and fell in love being a prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Lali was forced to work as a tattoo artist in the field, tattooing the numbers of the prisoners in their arms when the Nazis exchanged the names and identities of the newcomers for a number.

During his three years in Auschwitz, from 1942 to 1945, Lali, a 25 -year -old Krompachy Jew in Slovakia, would tattoo hundreds of thousands of prisoners, with the help of attendees.

One of the people who tattooed was his compatriot Slovaca Gita Furman.

“I tattooed her number in her left hand and she tattooed her number in my heart,” Lali would tell the author Heathe in the book about his love story.
These forced tattoos, with trembling numbers and marked against pale forearms, have become one of the most recognizable symbols of the Holocaust and its deadliest field.

Lali met Gita for the first time in July 1942 and his connection was instantaneous.

I would send you letters, facilitated by a guard, as well as additional rations. They gathered secretly on Sundays, their only day of rest.

They lost contact in 1945 when it was sent to the Mauthausen field, only two days before Russian progress.
Later, Lali managed to escape, swimming for the Danube to avoid capture, and traveled back to Slovakia on horseback, where he looked for Gita and found her miraculously.

Desperate to get as much as possible in Europe, they, like 127,000 Jewish refugees, mostly survivors of the Holocaust, moved to Australia, where today their only son lives, Gary, in Melbourne.

Gita died in 2003, at 78, while Lali died in 2007, at 90.

Gary takes up the story: “Before he died, Dad said he wanted to return to Auschwitz.

“Mom had returned to Slovakia before he died, but Dad could never return.

“I said ‘really dad, are you sure?’ But he said that he finally needed to return to apologize to all the people who could not save and I think he had a deep feeling of guilt.

“I should have called to work the next day, take a couple of weeks of rest and go with him.

“Five weeks later he died, so we never had the opportunity.

“I really regret not having gone together.

“Then, when the offer to make the documentary arose, I finally had the opportunity to apologize on my father’s name, which was a great relief for me.”

Before visiting the countryside, Gary was taken to Slovakia, where he visited his parents’ childhood households and his father’s school.

“I picked up stones from both villages to be able to put them on their graves every time I visited them.

“It is a Jewish tradition to put a stone on a grave.

“I am very happy to have been able to see all those places and meet relatives and people who knew them and who are still alive today.

“If I had been in the first camp, it would not have been such a happy memory.”

After visiting Slovakia, Gary and the documentary team traveled to Poland.

Gary said: “They took me to areas that are not on the tour.

“I went to the area where my mother was in Birkenau. “Birkenau’s immensity was amazing.

“All production. The way in which the Germans ensured that there was absolutely no waste, such as even the hair collected to send it to fabric companies.

“They took me to the father’s pavilion, the gypsy field and the wing of punishment.

“I even saw the box in which they put my dad in the punishment block. I sneaked there.

“It was so small. I tried to imagine three people there. You had to stand all night. You could hardly breathe. ”

Gary visited the execution patio where the prisoners would receive shots in the back of the head, where his blood soaked a meter deep underground.

He saw the frightening living conditions, gas chambers, conveyor belts that would transport bare corpses batteries from the chamber to the crematoriums.

He saw the railroads that brought Jews from all over Europe and the tiny wooden cars that transported 80 people, many of whom suffocated even before arriving.

“Seeing what my first -hand parents lived has made me understand a bit of what they were protecting me by never talking about it.

“They never told me about that while it grew.

“Dad was so hardened in some aspects that Mom was often very depressed.

“However, Dad was always anxious. I couldn’t look back.

“I remember that once I got home from school. I had to be about 12 or 13 years old and the house had gone on sale and they were taking away my car. Dad had ruined.

“I hoped to enter home and cry, but Mom was in the kitchen singing and cooking.

“She simply said that when you had gone through what they had happened, you could face anything and said that Dad had always taken care of her and that she was always doing it.”

Gary is now the father of two daughters, Aviva and Marley (verifying the spelling of the names and ages) and led them to the tombs of their parents so that they could place the stones he had recovered from Slovakia to place them in their tombs.

He added: “From Auschwitz I am now a different person. Somehow I feel lighter and in peace.

Gary also says that his Jewish identity is now more important for him than ever.

“My Jewish faith is exceptionally important to me because my parents survived and I don’t want them to have survived without any reason.

“For me it is important that they have Jewish grandchildren in the world even if they have never had the opportunity to meet them.

“It is also very important for me to maintain living religion, strong.”

Gary strictly observes on Saturday, there are no phones, no computers, or cars.

Instead, play and talk to your children, play board games and go to the park.

“I love spending time with my family without distractions. I love Jewish traditions. We turn on many candles.

“My religion is extremely important for me. It is the reason why six million people died. ”

He feels the duty to keep the new generations about the Holocaust and challenge those who deny it.

He added: “I have never met a holocaust survivor who wanted to talk about his experiences, but I will continue to do so.

And he says that, like his parents, he believes that no matter how terrible a situation is, especially in war, there is always hope.

“My mom and dad were lucky to survive and I am the result of one of the most amazing romances in the most horrible place.

“That is why I would tell all those people who suffer throughout the world because of the war: there is always hope. There will be better days. ”

* The son of the tattoo artist: Journey to Auschwitz, History of Skjy, Monday, January 27, 21 hours.