Israeli court freezes sale of Auschwitz tattoo stamps

An Israeli court issues an injunction halting the auction of tattoo stamps used by Nazis on Jewish and other inmates of Auschwitz, following an appeal from a Holocaust survivor group.

Tzolman’s Auctions, a Jerusalem seller, had listed eight original tattoo stamps of digits used to brand inmates at the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.

Auschwitz and Belsen concentration camp survivor Eva Behar shows her number tattoo in her home in London, United Kingdom, December 1, 2014. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A million Jews died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was set up by Nazi Germany in what is now Poland during World War II, along with tens of thousands of others including Catholic Poles, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war, between 1940 and 1945.

“The original stamps used to tattoo the numbers on Auschwitz prisoners,” Tzolman’s website bragged. “The most shocking Holocaust item.”