Auschwitz’s son’s tattoo artist visits the camp for the first time | TV and radio | Showbiz & TV

Walking through those infamous huge iron doors, under the disturbing signal ‘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 made him an accident.

Before the 80th anniversary of the release of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps on January 27, 1945, the only son of the ‘Auschwitz tattoo’, the Slovak Jew Lali Sokolov, (sometimes spelling Lale) visited the notorious field of Extermination for the field of death for the notorious camp for the notorious camp of The Notorious. First time in memory of their deceased parents.

His pilgrimage to the site of the execution of six million of his companions Jews was being filmed to transmit a new documentary in the history of heaven on the anniversary.

Many readers will already be familiar with the incredibly moving love story of their parents documented in the most sale novel in 2017 “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” of the former caregiver and housekeeper from Lale, Heather Morris, and the television miniseries starring Harvey Keitel last year.

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

In an exclusive interview, Gary, 63, told The 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 so many questions without an answer.

“However, while walking along the doors, under Arbeit Macht Frei, my knees were trembling so much that they had to stop filming until I could compose and make my legs work properly. I was sobbing and felt like a coward. “

The worst thing was to come for Gary, since he was taken to a tour behind the camp and understand the complete horror of what happened there 80 years ago.

“Walking through those doors was not even the most difficult part. The most difficult part was to see the crematorium. Dad had said again and again, ‘crematorium three’ before he died.

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

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

“But at the same time, walking through my parents’ steps was very special. I don’t think I felt closer to them than me there. “

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

Lali was forced to work as a tattoo artist in the camp, tattooing the numbers of the prisoners in their arms when the Nazis exchanged new names and arrival identities 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 those who tattooed was the companion Slovaca Gita Furman.

“I tattoo her number in her left hand, and she tattooed her number in my heart,” then Lali told author Heathe in the book about her love story.
These forced tattoos, the unstable numbers and marked against the pale forearms, have become one of the most recognizable symbols of the Holocaust and its most deadly camp.

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

He would send you letters, facilitated by a guard, as well as additional rations. They would gather in secret on Sundays, their only day of rest.

They lost contact in 1945 when they sent it to the Mauthausen camp, only two days before the Russians advanced.
Lali then managed to escape, swimming 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 their only son Gary lives today in Melbourne.

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

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

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

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

“I should have called the work the next day and take a couple of weeks free and have gone with him.

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

“I have a real sense of regret that we would not have 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 camp, Gary was taken to Slovakia, visiting the childhood houses of his parents and his father’s school.

“I grabbed stones from their two villages to be able to put them in their grave every time I visited.

“It is a Jewish traffic to put a stone in a grave.

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

“If I had been first in the camp, that 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 the Germans made sure that there was absolutely no waste, as even hair was sent to be sent to knitting companies.

“They took me to the dad block, the gypsy camp and the punishment wing.

“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 get up all night. You could barely breathe. “

Gary visited the execution patio where the prisoners would be shot in the back of the head, where their blood soaked through a deep meter under the ground.

He saw the terrible living conditions, the gas chambers, the conveyor tapes that would transport the bare corpses batteries from the chamber to the crematorium.

He saw the railroads that brought Jews from all over Europe and the small wooden carriages containing 80 people, many of whom suffocated before they arrived.

“Seeing what my parents experienced firsthand has made me understand a bit of what they were protecting me by never talking about it.

“They would never talk about that while I grew up.

“Dad was so hardened in some way, Mom often very depressed.

“Dad was always looking forward. I couldn’t look back.

“I remember that once I returned home from school. I should have been about 12 or 13 years old and the house had risen for sale and the car was being carried. Dad had broken.

“I hoped to go home and there was crying, but Mom was in the kitchen singing and cooking.

“She just said that when you had gone through what had happened, you could deal with anything and she said that Dad had always taken care of her and she hoped that he would always do it.”

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

He added: “From Auschwitz, I am now a different person. I feel lighter and more peacefully.

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

“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 though they never had the opportunity to meet them.

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

Gary strictly observes Saturday, without phones, without computers, without cars.

Instead, he plays and talks to his children, board games and trip 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 informed about the new generations about the Holocaust and challenge the denaders.

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, as his parents, he believes, however horrible it is a situation, particularly in the war, there is always hope.

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

“So I would say that all those people suffering in the world due to war, there is always hope. There will be better days. “

* The son of the tattoo artist: Journey to Auschwitz, Skjy History, Monday, January 27 at 9 pm