Israel, auction of Auschwitz tattoo marks suspended

JERUSALEM – Eight small metal marks, very rare finds testifying to the horror of Shoah, are at the center of a controversy that has emerged in these hours in Israel: these are seals, one centimeter by one and a half centimeters each, used by the Nazis to tattoo the numbers on the skin of the prisoners in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. They were intended to be sold to the highest bidder on November 9, after the Tzolman auction house in Jerusalem – which specializes in Jewish artifacts and especially ancient manuscripts – exhibited them at a starting price of 1,400.