... if he hasn't been in Auschwitz?
The girl at the casino notices it and thus deducts he's be to a kz-lager, but only the inmates entering Auschwitz from 1941 were tattooed. As far as I know, no other camps did this.
Goof?
Wasn't he in one prison(wasn't that Auschwitz?) where he did portraits or drawings for germen officers( and he took the opportunity to get hands on better food there) before being transferred to the last prison where the counterfeiting gang were?
Hmmm, no. He's first being send to Mauthausen, famous for it's quarries which also appears briefly in the movie.
Then he's transferred to Sachsenhausen. No Auschwitz on his itinerary, as far as I know.
It's a cleverly ambiguous piece of film making, my interpretation being that they knew what resentment/suspicion the other prisoners might have toward them, so a number of them tattooed themselves with fake Auschwitz numbers. That is merely my interpretation. There are other ambiguities which I belive are deliberate and never to be discovered,
shareKenny xray, Mr. S never did show his arm to his suspicious inmates.
I am thinking of the very earliest scenes from the movie, where S is about to get down with a lady from the casino. She sees the tattoo and hence concludes he's been to a KZ-Lager.
I still think it's a blunder.
I could be misremembering this, but I am pretty sure that in the scene where Herzog hands over the medicine, he makes Sorowitsch sign a later saying that he, Herzog, had helped to get him transferred from Auschwitz amongst other camps. Salomon Smolianoff, who was the real-life counterpart of Sally in the film, never was in Auschwitz I believe. But Adolf Burger, another of the forging team and author of the book on which the film is based, was.
shareAha, that's interesting. but still, that tattoo remains a blunder on the film crew's part. Probably due to the fact that so many people view these kinds of tattoos as the ultimate symbol of the Holocaust.
shareI agree, it's strange. Especially since the tattoos even come into play later, when they are confronted by the other inmates. Burger shows his tattoo and asks those he knew had also been in Auschwitz to do the same.
shareYou might not be misremembering so much, Mr. Kessler, as misunderstanding the dialogue. I went back to check, and Herzog is obviously making arrangements for his escape at war's end with the forged passports. He has Sorowitsch sign a letter saynig Herzog saved the lives of Jews by having them transferred from such places as Matthausen and Auschwitz, to Sachsausen. There was no mention in the letter of Sorowitsch himself having been specifically at Auschwitz. The funny thing is, if he had a tattoo, why didn't he step forward with Burger, Plappler, and Abramowicz near the end of the movie?
shareHe was at Mauthausen before going to Sachsenhausen, not Auschwitz.
shareAs it has been stated in several replies, only prisoners admitted to the
Auschwitz / Birkenau complex (those selected for the gas chambers were not included)had tattoos placed on their left forearms. There were two series:
A ( up until 20,000 - July 30, 1944), and the B series - starting shortly thereafter. No other camps employed tattooing. These numbers were meant to be used as an identification marker at the time of death of the prisoner (all prisoners were expected to die within two - three months of "service"). Increasingly, movies, paintings, and other media have used the tattooed arm as a "symbol" of the camps or even the Holocaust itself - despite the historical error. This may be the case in this instance.
Not all prisoners, the correctional prisoners were excepted to be released and so got no numbers.
People also think gas chambers were everywhere...
Caobao, you are right. I was told last week that only Auschwitz-Stammlager and Auschwitz-Monowitz inmates were tattooed. The person who told me works at a Holocaust centre and is, himself a survivor of three Nazi concentration camps. He has no tattoo.
Sally should not have a tattoo. This is a goof.
Remember the scene where Herzog has Sally sign a piece of paper saying that he'd rescued Sally from a capy while Sally was handing him Swiss passports and Herzog handed over the medicine?
I think that perhaps the letter claimed Herzog had saved Sally from Auschwitz (thus making him a 'good' Nazi) and Herzog was using it as a way of exonerating himself in the future. Perhaps he was made to tattoo himself to make the lie more convincing.
Of course, he couldn't have shown the tattoo at the end, as the others would have known it to be false.
Thoughts?
Having just watched the film again I'm pretty sure Sally is signing the letter on behalf of the whole team explaining what Herzog has done for them all as a unit, including moving them from other tougher camps including Auschwitz. I'm pretty sure the letter isn't solely about his positive actions towards Sally alone, but all of the Counterfeit team, and as a result doesn't suggest he was in Auschwitz himself. It makes sense for Herzog to request this of Sally as opposed to anyone else as they have a mutual understanding and make deals with each other to guarantee their respective survivals.
As for the arm tattoo - yes, I think this is just a mistake; it's a convienient plot device so that the girl in the casino can recognise instantly his history without having the character (already a close-lipped character) say or otherwise suggest anything, which would have been more unrealistic under the circumstances.
Given some liberties are taken with the truth throughout the film it doesn't bother me too much - it doesn't seem like too large a distortion to suggest tattoos were more widespread than they were for the sake of the drama.
i think the beginning scene is actually from after he got out of the camp. the last scene is a continuation of it.
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call me snake...
I think in this case, the tattooed number was 'shorthand' to indicate that he'd been in a camp (at the beginning). I don't think he was one of those showing his tattoo at the end in order to prove they had really been prisoners. According to several sources, the only characters that weren't composites to some degree were Burger and the opera singer Pappler. Thus, 'Sally' didn't have to completely follow the real person Smolianoff; he was 'Sorowitsch,' a character. I think this choice was reasonable for the purposes of the film's narrative.
shareYes, a goof, overlooked, I just posted about it.
shareI agree with you that it's most likely a blunder. It's often made in other movies dealing with the Holocaust.
Also afaik most inmates in Auschwitz were tattooed on the top of their left forearm rather than on the bottom (i.e. unlike what's shown in this movie).