The book is a fictionalized, powerful account, set during a period of history that must never be forgotten. As the story opens, Lale Sokolov is a dapper twenty-five-year-old ladies' man who has been raised by his mother and sister to dote on and respect women. He enjoys female companion, but has not yet found the woman with whom he wants to spend his life. He is shocked at the manner in which he and the other men on the train are treated, realizing that his life will never be the same, a reality that is reinforced when a number -- 32407 -- is forcibly tattooed onto his arm. "He grasps his arm, staring at the number. How can someone do this to another human being? He wonders if for the rest of his life, be it short of long, he will be defined by this moment, this irregular number: 32407." Lale resolves to survive.
Lale's horror is magnified when he is recruited to assist Pepan, the camp's Tätowierer. Pepan assures Lale that he can help him survive. "You want me to tattoo other men I don't think I could do that. Scar someone, hurt someone . . ." Papan convinces Lale by reminding him that if he doesn't take the job, "someone will who has less soul than you do, and he will hurt these people more." And so Lale swears to perform the job in the most compassionate way possible, given the circumstances.
Morris relates the various ways in which Lale risked his life to help others, and did indeed survive confinement in place where hope was in short order most of the time. By some, he was branded a "collaborator" but he used his ingenuity and courage to take advantage of opportunities to save as many others as possible, including the beautiful young Gita with whom he instantly falls in love. She refuses to tell him about her past, her family, where she came from, or even her last name. For Gita it is too painful and she wants to forget because when she is with Lale she is able to escape reality for a few moments. She promises to tell him on the day they leave Auschwitz, but insists they "have no future." Lale refuses to give up, telling her about his vow to survive. "We will survive and make a life where we are free to kiss when we want to, make love when we want to."
At its core, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a love story, illustrating the power of love to provide comfort and distraction through dreams of and plans for the future, inspire selfless and risky action, and sustain and inspire during the darkest hours when it appears that hope is only for the naive or unenlightened.
Remaining steadfastly committed to his vow is a challenge for Lale, of course. At times he feels nothing but despair, wondering how he is even "still breathing, when so many aren't?" Lale falls into an existence that is comfortable as compared to so many others because, as the Tätowierer, he works with a handful of other prisoners and is removed from the most inhumane conditions to which others are subjected. About that, he feels guilt, especially when he sees others die before his eyes or be brutally herded onto trucks with the knowledge that he will never see them again. Like Lale, Gita is painfully aware of the number of people who have passed through the camps because she works in the office processing paperwork.
Lale did, in fact, find Gita after the liberation of the camps, and they married in October 1945. In the camp, Gita told Lale that someday he would honor all of those lost "by staying alive, surviving this place and telling the world what happened here." And he did. "I need to be with Gita," he said. But it was her death that inspired him to at last tell his story. "He wanted it to be recorded so, in his words, 'it would never happen again.'"
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is difficult to read because of the subject matter, as well as the knowledge that it is largely based upon the actual experiences and observations of Lale, an ordinary man who, like so many others, was thrust into extraordinary and unimaginable circumstances. But therein also lies its strength. Morris relates Lale's story in a straight-forward, unrelenting manner, detailing how he was stripped of his very identity and assigned a number, along with his freedom, dignity, and possessions, and separated from his beloved family, most of whom he never saw again. Morris details, sans judgment, the things Lale did to survive, challenging readers to question what choices they might make.
Morris did not visit Auschwitz until 2018. Once there, she stood on the concrete step that led down into Crematoria #3 and apologized, on behalf of Lale, to the 1.5 million people exterminated there. "He wrongly felt it was his fault that he couldn’t save the souls who died there," Morris relates. "Lale’s motto in Auschwitz was, 'If you wake up in the morning, it is a good day.' He believed you owed it to yourself and those around you to make the day the best it could be.”
Through Morris, Lale has at last, and for all time, honored those who were lost "telling the world what happened" there.
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