Yad Vashem: 'Auschwitz tattoo kit' likely not used on Jews
'It would appear highly unlikely that these dies were used to tattoo Jews'
A tattoo kit offered for auction in Israel as an Auschwitz artifact is unlikely to have been used on Jews at the concentration camp, a court-ordered investigation found on Thursday.
The collection includes metal stamps with needles in the shape of numbers connected to them, described as "the most shocking of Holocaust items" by the Jerusalem auctioneer. The stamps had a projected price of $30,000 to $40,000.
However, the sale was suspended after the Tel Aviv District Court granted a request by Holocaust survivors.
The court asked the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem to authenticate the kit before the court decides whether the auction should be allowed to proceed.
Yad Vashem produced a five-page report, stating: "It would appear highly unlikely that these dies were used to tattoo Jews, though this cannot be determined with absolute certainty," according to Reuters, who saw a copy of the report.
The report was due on Thursday, and the court ruling is expected later. It explains that while dies were used as of late 1941 to embed ink in prisoners' skin, the "overwhelming majority" of those victims were non-Jewish political detainees.
Inspection of the auctioned dies proved they "had clearly not been used regularly" and were cleaned, the report said, according to Reuters.
The auctioneer, Meir Tzolman, declined a Reuters Television interview request on Wednesday, stating he was awaiting the court's ruling.