Ithaca College

“Numbered,” a documentary that tells the story of survivors who for the past six decades have been living with the grayish-blue numbers tattooed on them by Nazis in Auschwitz, will be shown at Ithaca College on Tuesday, April 9, in observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Free and open to the public, the screening will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Textor 101.

During the Holocaust, both Jewish and non-Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz were tattooed with serial numbers, first on their chests and then their left arms. An estimated 400,000 numbers were tattooed in Auschwitz and its sub-camps; only some several thousand survivors are still alive today. “Numbered” is an explosive, highly visual and emotionally cinematic journey, guided by testimonies and portraits of these survivors.

For some, the tattoos are marks of shame to be hidden; for others, they are badges of honor. For many outsiders, meanwhile, these survivors have become living, walking exhibits of the Holocaust, with their trauma on display for all to see, whether they are eating an ice cream or taking money out of an ATM or just reading a book on a bench. This raises the question of how the next generations will remember those numbers when the survivors are no longer sitting on those benches.

The screening is sponsored by the Ithaca College Jewish studies program and Hillel. For more information, contact Rebecca Lesses, associate professor and coordinator of Jewish studies, at (607) 274-3556 or rlesses@ithaca.edu.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Rebecca Lesses at rlesses@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-3556. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.