The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

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

The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel (book 1) by Heather Morris
Based on the powerful true story of love and survival

Harper Audio
Historical fiction
September 2018
Rating: 4/5
8/12/19-8/14/19

This book has been on my TBR list but when I received an ARC of Cilka’s Journey, I moved this to the top. This is an incredible story based on the personal life events of a survivor. It is a unique and unusual view of survival with people “doing what we have to do to live.”

Lale Sokolov was a 24 yo Slovakian Jew who chose to be taken to Auschwitz-Birkena to work on the Nazi concentration camp. He wants to protect his older brother Max who is married with 2 children. Because Lale speaks several languages he becomes valuable as a prisoner to facilitate communication between officers and prisoners. It doesn’t take long for him to realize that he must do whatever he can to survive even when that puts him in a position of “helping” the enemy. When he becomes a tattooist imprinting numbers on his fellow prisoners, he was allowed certain “privileges” for his work.

To save one is to save all.

Lale risks his safety to help other prisoners through a network developed where he would receive jewels and money from murdered Jews. He would trade them for supplies and food to care for the others suffering from starvation as the 2 “meals” a day were less than adequate. Many prisoners including Lale become sick with typhus. It took unbelievable bravery and compassion to witness the atrocious and barbaric treatment of the people forced to worked in the camps.

It was one day when Lale had to tattoo a young fearful woman, Gita, that he finds a reason to live. The two develop a relationship which sustains and empowers them to survive. Many of the people form bonds which enable them to protect each other with the hopes of being released from the camps.

This story was based on a true story of a man known as the Tattooist of Auschwitz. It’s not a spoiler to reveal that he survives otherwise his story would never have been told. There are many books about WWII and the survivors of the concentration camps. This is a unique story from the view of a prisoner struggling to survive while endangering himself to help others to survive as well.


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