First-time author Heather Morris in The Tattooist of Auschwitz writes about one of the most controversial subjects in history—the Holocaust. For her research, she interviewed Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, born as Ludwig Eisenberg, for over three years, when he was aged 87 to 90 years. The story is crafted dramatically to narrate the experiences of Sokolov, who was 25 when he was jailed in Auschwitz in 1942. People were divided into two lines as soon as they arrived in Auschwitz: those deemed fit to work, and those who needed to be murdered instantaneously. Sokolov was put in the first line, given the task of tattooing numbers on to the arms of incoming prisoners.
Sokolov first met Gita Furman, a fellow Slovakian, when she proceeded towards the front of his line to get her tattoo. She tried to speak, but Sokolov hushed her and marked her with 3 then 4 – 9 – 0 – 2. Then he lifted his eyes, and as their eyes met, Sokolov developed an intense feeling of deep affection for her. In real, the couple later got married and moved to Melbourne, Australia, where they raised a son together.
Interestingly, facts blend with fiction in scenes like a football match between the inmates and SS guards. It is a bit difficult to believe that the SS guards, who thought of the prisoners as subhumans, would want to play a football match with them! Morris says the book is not an academic historical piece of non-fiction; it is Sokolov’s story. And while she agrees that others might have a different understanding of the time the book was written, it is ultimately Sokolov’s perspective that is important in the book. One of the main reasons for the success of The Tattooist of Auschwitz could be the fact that this ‘fictional’ tale is based on history and real people.
Even though at the beginning of the book, Sokolov is told that “your crime is to be Jewish”, when he becomes the tattooist, he gains freedom of movement as he formally becomes a part of the political arm of the SS. This apparent power helps Sokolov come to the aid of other people, including his love Gita and his assistant Leon, whose balls are cut off by the sadistic Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi who was a little too much into human experimentation and who would often intimidate Sokolov, and threaten to take him in. He never could though, as the camp commandant didn’t give permission.
When readers reach the end of the book, they will find additional information that provides elemental details about the real story. The particular section gives the book all the more depth.
The novel raises important questions like if it is a pressing matter for novels that talk about a calamitous episode like the Holocaust to get basic facts right. On one hand, the incorrect tattoo number of Furman doesn’t invalidate her story in any way because it is true that she was incarcerated at Auschwitz for three years and she did meet her future spouse there; on the other hand, readers who were very much present there might disesteem the book as it would make them question their own memory and story. Gary Sokolov, son of Lale and Gita, himself admitted that the misspelling of “Lale” in the novel perturbed him. Gary also recalls how the tattoo bothered his mother so much, she lost sleep over it and eventually got it removed in her 60s.
It is up to the reader how they interpret the book. Some will see it as a memoir, some as a love story, some as historical fiction, but everyone will agree that politics and religion play a huge role in the book. As former tatowierer Pepan says to Sokolov, “Politics will help you understand the world until you don’t understand it anymore, and then it will get you thrown into a prison camp. Politics and religion both.”
