One of the more de-humanising aspects of the Holocaust is now the subject of a new photographic exhibition at Melbourne's Jewish Holocaust Centre, SBS' Luke Waters reports.
The tattoos applied in concentration camps have long- fascinated school groups and adult visitors alike.
Now, survivors are recounting their stories as part of an exhibition entitled "Marked".
Year 11 students were mesmerised as holocaust survivor Jack Fogel delivers his compelling story of concentration camps: torture and tattoos.
"I was given a number tattoo on my arm and from that day on my name disappeared," he told SBS.
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He became known as prisoner 140964. His "human" identity was gone.
As that reality hit the students, the questions came thick and fast.
"When you went through that situation of having the tattoo on your arm what were you feeling like?," they asked him.
"I thought when it's finished I'd rub it off my arm. I didn't know what really it was".
Kitia Altman also survived Auschwitcz and remembers vividly how a fellow prisoner reluctantly applied the ink to her inner forearm.
But Ms Altman sees as a positive thing as only those deemed strong enough to work were tattooed, and so escaped the gas chamber.
Holocaust Centre curator Jayne Josem says the new photograhic exhibition provides an invaluable educational tool.
"The holocaust can be so incomprehensible that seeing this really tangible mark makes it real for the visitors".
Jack Fogel agrees. As for having the ink removed, he wouldn't dream of it.
"I'm not ashamed of it. Let the people who did it to me be ashamed of it. I'll never have it removed," he said.
The exhibition moves to regional galleries in Victoria from mid-December.
