Review: The Tattooist of Auschwitz

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've had to think long and hard about how to rate this book. It is loosely based on the first hand account of Lale Sokolov, born Eisenberg, a survivor of the Shoah (Holocaust). I had a lot of feelings about this book, namely that it is, somewhat unpalatably to me, in part a romance, set against the backdrop of the very worst that humanity had to offer. Two Slovakian Jews, Lale and Gita (Gisela) meet in Auschwitz, fall in love, and are later almost miraculously reunited after the camps are liberated. It sounds impossible but this really is the story of Lale and Gita Sokolov. How they did it, how they managed to stay alive, and how also their friend Cilka did, brings up a whole host of difficult questions.

Lale Sokolov was the tattooist at Auschwitz for a long period of time. He marked the numbers on men, women, children. By his account he did this as kindly as he could, and with a realization of the gravity of his actions. (If you don't know, Judaism prohibits tattoos, according to a passage in Leviticus.) Though not an observant Jew, he is very aware of the fact that for observant Jews, these tattoos are not only dehumanizing but are forbidden by their faith. Someone has to do it. Better it be kind Lale, himself tattooed and aware of how much it hurts, than some barbarian. Being the tattooist also brings him more food, which he tries to share, and better quarters, which he eventually is also forced to share with an extended family of Romany. Lale is what many would call a collaborator. Lale wanted to stay alive, especially after meeting Gita, and frankly, as we see clearly in the novel, there are many Jews who took collaborator jobs that are far, far worse. Gita also works in the administrative offices at Auschwitz, as does Cilka, subject of Morris' forthcoming Cilka's Journey. All could of them, or even were, considered to be Nazi collaborators.

What I found most interesting in this novel, rather than what appears to have been a romance forged in the darkest pit of human nature, was its exploration of this collaboration. When does the will to stay alive become collaboration with the enemy? If Lale's version of events is to be credited, he actually saved many people by sharing food, by buying food with pilfered jewels at great personal risk, by getting people transported to other camps instead of executed, and in general frustrated the Nazi attempts to obliterate not just Jews but Romany, and other people. While part of me wonders how much of his story was sugar-coated and told with the kind eye that humans tend to cast on their own actions, the novel did make me think about how that will to live is what helped many Jews and others survive the camps and ultimately foil Hitler's horrifying Final Solution. Lale was a grown man when he entered Auschwitz in 1942. Gita was barely counted as an adult, as was Cilka. Each of these people had so few choices and they lived by dealing with those few choices. Were they wrong? Can any of us ever judge them without having walked in those shoes? Perhaps it is only those who were in the camps with them who have a right to judge.

This novel is a fascinating exploration of morality and the relationships that kept people going with a will to live.

I listened to the audiobook, beautifully narrated by Richard Armitage. Readers should note that the present ebook version of the novel has changed the culturally insensitive term "gypsy" to Roma or Romany. The audiobook, recorded in 2018, used the disfavored term gypsy to refer to the Romany.

ETA: As I surmised, the historical accuracy of a number of aspects of the book has been called into question. Readers are directed here for a discussion: https://view.joomag.com/memoria-en-no-14-11-2018/0766192001543510530/p6?short

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