BOOK REVIEW: THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ BY HEATHER MORRIS

TITLE: THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ

AUTHOR: HEATHER MORRIS

GENRE: HISTORICAL FICTION

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the true story of Lale and Gita Sokolov, two Slovakian Jews who survived Auschwitz and eventually made their home in Australia. In that terrible place, Lale was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival - literally scratching numbers into his fellow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust. Lale used the infinitesimal freedom of movement that this position awarded him to exchange jewels and money taken from murdered Jews for food to keep others alive. If he had been caught, he would have been killed; many owed him their survival.

There have been many books about the Holocaust - and there will be many more. What makes this one so memorable is Lale Sokolov's incredible zest for life. He understood exactly what was in store for him and his fellow prisoners, and he was determined to survive - not just to survive but to leave the camp with his dignity and integrity intact, to live his life to the full. Terrible though this story is, it is also a story of hope and of courage. It is also - almost unbelievably - a love story. Waiting in line to be tattooed, terrified and shaking, was a young girl. For Lale - a dandy, a jack-the-lad, a bit of a chancer - it was love at first sight, and he determined not only to survive himself but to ensure that Gita did, too. His story - their story - will make you weep, but you will also find it uplifting. It shows the very best of humanity in the very worst of circumstances.

Like many survivors, Lale and Gita told few people their story after the war. They eventually made their way to Australia, where they raised a son and had a successful life. But when Gita died, Lale felt he could no longer carry the burden of their past alone. He chose to tell his story.

MY REVIEW

"The tattooist of Auschwitz“ is based on a real story of the Holocaust survivor, Lale Sokolov. The book takes you through his 3 years of life at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Auschwitz regarded as the largest and deadliest concentration camp existed at the time of world war 2. I have little to say about the writing or the plot. I just got an opportunity to know what exactly the concentration camps were and how the innocent “prisoners” endured their life at that hell. Throughout the book, I was just witnessing what Lale Sokolov had been through, nothing else registered in my mind. I have noticed no plot holes or how good Morris’s writing is. 

 Every page of this book will shake you and make you feel sad for those people who had to face the atrocities just because of their faith, belief, social status and politics. 

As the book claims, it’s a love story that blossomed at the concentration camp. Do you want to know how true love looks like? Read this book. Amid of life-threatening situation, the courage Lale and Geeta showed to make their dream-come-true is indeed a delight to read.

The reader will get a glimpse of Dr Mengele’s cruelties, his weird medical experiments and other internal politics that existed inside the camp.

The insane cruelties that the Nazis committed has been portrayed in its full magnitude in the book. Indeed, a disturbing read. The fact is, reality always disturbs people, right?. 

I had heard or I would say learned about Nazism, fascism, their hatred towards Jews, and social cleansing for the first time when I was 13 or 14 from my history classes. There was a picture of naked dead bodies heaped like a mountain in the history text which had me shocked and made me cry. Later I realised they were Jews and other people Nazis stamped as “inferiors” killed inside a gas chamber. Ever since I have been eager to know more about it and ended up watching many documentaries made on concentration camps and the Nazi government. 

 The tears welled up back in that time was not out of fear but out of a realisation that human can be cruel to any extent. The agenda of Hitler was not the social cleansing or upraise of the Aryan race, but power. 

He knew how to get support from the commoners, how to have them for his needs. So he befriended the age-old tactics yet the stronger till date, religion. From ancient history itself, the name of religion makes people stand together and kill each other. 

 Humanity dies when you recognise each other by the name of a country, or religion or economic status. 

If you want to experience and witness the hardships people at the concentration camp had been gone through, please read The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Unlike other books I read about the Holocaust, this one has given me deep insights. 

MY RATING

4 STARS / 5 STARS