Written by Heather Morris, The Tatooist of Auschwitz is the story of Lale (Lali) Sokolov, a Jewish prisoner in Birkenau who becomes the Tatowierer for Auschwitz-Birkenau – that is to say that he, and his assistant, tattoo every prisoner who comes into the concentration camps. A man who, when he arrived, decided he would live to be free again, and also found the woman who would one day be his wife among the other prisoners.
This is an amazing story, and based on the true life of Lali Sokolov, who really did this (for the most part – there are some inconsistencies between the story and real life that I will get into). However, this is a compelling novel told through all of the little things that would happen there, and really does a great job of working the reader up to the point where so many things that were horrible were taken as everyday occurrences. People would be shot. Tortured. Miss food. Die in the night, and in the day. But there were still new horrors happening. The crematoriums being built. The gypsies. So many things. And this is the fictionalized version of one man who has been in MANY nonfiction tellings.
More likely than not, Lali or his aprentice Leon put the number on Elie Wiesel who would later write Night, required reading for many.
With that being said, there are numerous historians who point out that, while based on a true story, this is a work of fiction that was conveyed 60 years after the event happened. The number on Gita (the wife) listed in the novel is not true, and likely how they met isn’t true either – tattooing a number on her for the first time and shushing her. There is another section in the novel where Lale takes written tattoos (on the women’s arms) and permanently marks them. That could be how he actually met her.
There are a few other details that appear to be inaccurate, but this is still a wonderfully amazing novel about love and endurance. Highly recommend this to anyone. Just, don’t take it as fact.
