‘I stayed alive to tell’ – Auschwitz’s dwindling survivors recount horrors of Nazi death camp

By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A strip of skin tattooed with the Auschwitz death camp number 99288 sits in a silver frame on a shelf in Avraham Harshalom’s living room. It is his prisoner number, etched on to his forearm in 1943.

As the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation on Jan 27, 1945, nears, Harshalom, 95, is very clear about why he kept it.

“For history. To tell it to the next generations,” he said.

“In Auschwitz nobody knew names. The German SS (officer), when he was talking to you, he was talking to a number.”

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