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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: ‘I want them to ask me’: A survivor’s son on why he tattooed his father’s Auschwitz number on his arm
Description: As Gary Kapelus grew up in Canada, his father, Jerry Kapelus, never talked about what it had been like to be forcibly tattooed by Nazis in Auschwitz in 1944. But Kapelus noticed that his dad never tried to hide or remove the tattoo, either; indeed, he often displayed it as he spoke to thousands of school children over the years about his experiences.
After Jerry died in 2021, Kapelus took up the mantle as a Holocaust educator, sharing his father’s story. Recently, at the age of 70, Kapelus decided to take one extra step: he got that same number, B...