Hello Readers,
This book is based on interviews that
were conducted with Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Ludwig
(Lale) Sokolov told to Heather Morris before his death in 2006. There are Spoilers in this review and I talk about the concentration camps.
In April 1942, Lale, a Slovakian
Jew, was transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau
after Lale had offered himself as a strong, able-bodied young man in
the hope that it would save the rest of his family from being split up. On arrival,
the Nazis changed his name to 32407.
Not long after he arrived at the
camp, Lale contracted typhoid. He was cared for by Pepan the
man who had given him his identification tattoo and French academic. Pepan took Lale under
his wing and set him to work as his assistant. He taught him how to keep his
head down and mouth shut.
Then one-day Pepan disappears
and Lale was made the Tätowierer (German for tattooist). Partly due to his captors
discovering that he spoke several languages - Slovakian, German, Russian,
French, Hungarian and a bit of Polish. Lale was then tasked with
permanently marking his fellow prisoners, given an assistant and had an officer
assigned to monitor him, which gave him an appearance of protection.
Being the Tätowierer gave
Lale special perks such as more rations, better sleeping conditions and the
ability to move around the camp more freely. He was able to exchange the money
and prized possessions of those who died in the gas chambers for food and
medicine. Lale was generous and provided for so many and saved lives.
While giving a tattoo, he meets Gita and feels an instant attraction to her.
Meeting her gives Lale a reason to survive. He uses his
position for the greater good even through struggles and extreme suffering,
with the hope of one day being with Gita forever, outside of the camp (I'm not
crying! I have dust allergies).
Imprisoned for over two and a half
years, Lale witnessed horrific atrocities and barbarism but also
incredible acts of bravery and compassion.
First off, I loved this book I read it
in one sitting (two hours) and it honestly took me a couple of days to get over
the emotional roller coaster that is this book. As soon as I finished it, I
rang my cousin trying to work out how I felt and from all the jumbled mess that
came out was I was crying happy-sad tears. I was so happy because of the love
that Lale and Gita shared but the circumstances of how they met each other
are beyond heart-breaking. Told through the point of view of
both Lale and Gita, Heather Morris has a lot to say, and she
certainly touches a nerve. That being said and I mean this with no disrespect
but I personally felt at times with Heathers writing style you could easily
forget that this isn’t entirely a love story. I found myself that engrossed in
Gita and Lales story my subconscious blurred out the bad but that might be down
to me as the reader.
I don’t think I mentally prepared
myself to read this book I cried in the first five pages and that was before we
got anywhere near the camps. Lale surrendered himself to save his
family and is in the cattle wagons on his way to Auschwitz-Birkenau and he
thinks to himself “with the money and clothes he has, he might be able to buy
himself out of whatever they are heading for, or at the very least buy himself
into a safe job”. Even with a basic understanding of what happened during the
Holocaust, you know this isn’t going to happen and it broke my heart as a
reader and as a person. Having said I didn’t mentally prepare myself there were
only two other times the book made me cry I broke down with Lale at
one point and the last when I had finished the book and excuse the term but a
little shell shocked.
This book shows brutality, hatred, and
evil but what I hope people take away is the compassion, strength, dignity and
resilience that Lale and so many others named in this book
showed.
This book is ultimately about courage
in the face of the horrors of the camps and loss of family, courage sustained
by the strength of the human spirit and it's a love story that I'll never
forget. This book should be read at least once. There is not much more I can
add other than what Lale himself tells Morris - that he wanted his
story recorded so "It would never happen again."
Having said all this if you look online you can see that the book
has been called out for its authenticity I personally won’t go into it but I
will include some links if you would like to have a look
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