![]() ![]() ![]() The tattoo gives her the chance to continue what her mother used to do and talk about the Holocaust. Weintraub Gilad remains very close to her grandmother, who is 95 years old. Weintraub Gilad’s mother, Erica, as a child (right), with her brother Tomy and her parents Samuel and Agi in Romania in the 1960s. Others discussed doing so with their relative, beforehand. Some got the tattoo without seeking approval. Some waited until their survivor parent or grandparent had died. The people I have spoken with have relayed complex and varied decision-making processes behind this potent gesture. Of the 16 people I have spoken with, 13 are from Israel and three from the US.Īs the number of remaining survivors of the Nazi concentration camps grows ever smaller and the Holocaust passes out of living memory, replicating an Auschwitz tattoo becomes an ever more potent gesture about embodied memorialisation and, crucially, familial ties and love. My research delves into the stories of those descendants who, like Cohen, have chosen to replicate a parent or a grandparent’s tattoo on their own body. As a gesture and an indelible mark she carries with her, she says: To her mind, replicating this number was a means of taking her grandmother, as a person, and her legacy forward. In replacing the person’s name, this number has become the visual symbol of the crimes of the Nazis.Ĭohen draws meaning from her tattoo in that it signifies her grandmother’s history and her own identity as a descendant of Holocaust survivors. The Hoberman Collection|AlamyĪuschwitz, in Nazi-occupied Poland, was the only camp where numbers were tattooed on those inmates not selected for immediate death. It's time to shine light on the darkness of depression, and we're loving that beauty is helping to start this serious conversation.More than 400,000 prisoners were forcibly tattooed at Auschwitz. "Mental illness is not a choice," Bekah reminded her friends. The recently viral semicolon tattoo movement is another design that is seeking to take the stigma out of mental illness. and that's all I could really ask for."īekah's isn't the first ink that's raised awareness about the struggle of depressive disorders. "I may only be one person, but one can save another. "You'd be surprised by how many people YOU know that struggle with depression, anxiety, or other mental illness," she stated. ![]() The psychology major said that the prominent location of her new ink (the front of her leg) will force her to talk to others about her struggle. It reminds me that people who may appear happy, may be at battle with themselves." "To me, it means that others see this person that seems OK, but, in reality, is not OK at all. "When everyone else sees it, they see 'I'm fine,' but from my viewpoint, it reads 'save me,'" Bekah explained to her Facebook friends. Instead of hiding her diagnosis, 20-year-old student Bekah Miles is bravely sharing her depression with the world via her new tattoo, which she hopes will start a conversation about mental illness. Consider Robin Williams - the comedic actor fought with depression until he tragically took his own life in 2014, and only his inner circle knew about this battle. On the rare evenings you can push yourself to go out with friends, you find that you've mastered fake normalcy, and no one can tell anything is wrong. Some days, washing your hair feels like a task of Sisyphean proportions. ![]() Living with depression is a daily struggle. ![]()
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