The Tattooist Of Auschwitz

The Tattooist Of Auschwitz

Author: Heather Morris

When we are first introduced to Lale in April 1942, the young 24 year old seems well to do and well presented and educated. He seems to be uninterested in his surroundings or getting to know the men that are with him, off to fight in the war, pre-occupied with thoughts of home and the family he left behind. When he does speak to the men he is always trying to encourage them to be hopeful and that they have nothing to fear, I do not feel this was naivety on his part.

Lale has a great empathy with the prisoners as they arrived by the truckload, he was doing a job in tattooing their numbers, he didn't want to inflict the unnecessary pain and this showed in the apologies he muttered under his breath in different languages, he could speak Russian, German, Yiddish and Slovakian. This was also advantageous in him being able to listen to conversations from the "SS" around the camp and relay information back to the prisoners. Once various guards became aware of his languages Lale found himself with the position of "Tatowierer" thrust upon him.

Lale & Gita arrive at Sydney

Gita - 34902 arrives in camp and meets Lale as she waits in line for her tattoo. She doesn't flinch at the pain inflicted upon her, she returns a smile to his forced one and her eyes dance before him. 
Gita is quickly given work in the administration building compiling records of each prisoner to be tattooed. This daily grind keeps her away from the eyes of the guards looking for female company or looking for trouble and the next victim to shoot. This job enabled her survival of camp.

As life went on in the concentration camps, prisoners starved of food, heating, clothes and sanitation succumbed and died of malnutrition and dysentery. Those who struggled and fought to live another day were victims to depression and electrocuted themselves on the fences or a moment of insanity and trying to escape led to their execution. 

Lale and Gita's love for on another and promise to one another bolstered their need to survive and got them through the hell and the daily grind.

As life went on in the camp the non-Jewish prisoners were "Privileged" in the eyes of the "SS". They were given different types of work such as building, administration, torturer! Having to comply for fear of a bullet in the head. This caused discontent amongst the blocks and the prisoners. Lale tries to change this by including everyone in the sharing of his rations, gained in exchange for information, money and gems taken from the prisoners upon arrival in camp.

Holocaust Survivors

Had Gita and Lale met in a more conventional way, had they met in "2018" I believe they would have enjoyed an hot but brief love affair, passionate but short lived, due to modern day distractions such as social media, drugs and alcohol. Gita and Lale of "1942" were thrown together in harrowing, horrific circumstances.  They fell in love and supported each other, they were the light in each others lives at the time. They gave each other hope they would survive and were appreciative of everything the achieved afterwards. Only they could truly understand the horrors of camp and the nightmares and mental torment this would bring, this would cement their bond from which their love would grow.

This is also shown in the friendships between the men and women like Gita and her friends Dana and Cilka, whom were teenage girls of 16 forced to grow up, faced with death, hunger and hardship everyday. This will again have forged a bond between them that would be unbreakable and comforting, to have someone who understands the terror they relive upon closing their eyes. Teenage girls today still brush on some of the topics they encountered but their problems are more likely to be based around boys, fashion, school and social media etc. 

From a working class Slovakian family Lale was an ordinary man who had a conscience and willingness to help. When given chocolate or sausages as extra rations he would divide them up, keeping nothing for himself but sharing them with other prisoners. He kept in with officers I order to make the atrocities of living in a concentration camp as easy it is could be. This made Lale a hero in many eyes.

Lale faced danger after liberation, being the "Tattooist" he could so easily have been arrested and tried for war crimes, but he did not let this stop him from marrying Gita and make a success of his life.

Auschwitz - Arbeit Macht Frei (work will make you free)

The "Tattooist Of Auschwitz" has opened my eyes more , in how life as a prisoner played out. I will never be fully able to understand how this could ever happen in the first place and that the transportation and execution of thousands upon thousands of Jews was ever seen as normal. I really struggle to comprehend this, for the executioners to carry out these acts or face a bullet in the head, to me the loss of life of a coward is insignificant to the murder of many.

This story also highlights the friendships and alliances forged in the camps, the bonds unbreakable between men and woman of differing race and religion. This brought comfort at that time, they became family to each other, when their real families were lost

Auschwitz was the largest of German Nazi Concentration camps and executed over 1.1 million.

On January 27 1945 the Soviet Army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7000 prisoners.