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.
Comment: This book has risen to the ranks of best liked recently. I too was quite curious about it and had it in my list to buy when the prices dropped a bit considering the page count (it's a very small book, not even 250 pages). Last week I went to my local library and there it was, on the display shelf so of course I grabbed it and took it with me.
Having now read it, I can say it was a very touching story but not the most emotional one it could.
In this fictional tale based on real life events, the author created a small book on the experience suffered by Lale Solokov, a Slovakian man who was at Auschwitz and Birkenau during the Nazi occupations. Lale had to suffer a lot but he was also able to find the woman he would spend the rest of his life with.
The story is based on interviews and checking of facts but the lessons to learn never hide the terrible fact so many people were treated as no living creature should be...
Stories about the Holocaust or Second World Wars are usually quite emotional and touching, especially if the authors try to insert those themes into romance plots. Even non fiction can be brutal to the point of leaving a reader too sad or horrified. It's always very difficult to not care about the story and not imagine what so many people suffered and how it was happening in the eyes of the world and, still, allowed. Even nowadays so much suffering an wars happen and the world goes on...
This specific story is based on real people, which means apart from some invented dialogues and steps, most of what we read did happen. In my edition the author also included pictures of the main couple in there different stages in their lives and that made it even more real for me. I had never heard of Lale Solokov in particular so it was good to have a specific name to this "hero" and to the tale he was sharing. In the pictures he is always with his wife Gita, who he met in Birkenau, and it's the most disturbing thought for me to imagine that smiling couple was once in a place no one can really describe.
This is a touching story as any reader can imagine but, at the same time, it's just one more of several. The author went for authenticity by basing things on real people and, of course, that gave her the human approach some pure fiction stories sometimes lack, for they rely too much on general knowledge.
However, in terms of description, this wasn't the toughest story about Holocaust I've read. I can only assume the difficulty it was for Lale top talk about this and to remember things he saw and lived through, therefore I can also assume the more superficial tone of the story matches the attempt to respect Lale's memories? If not, I think there's a certain simplicity in the way things are told that doesn't really pay justice to what the situation deserved.
I can accept the fact there was no exploitation of the pain and suffering Lale and Gita and others they met went through. But I also think there's the attempt to minimize some things and the small page count, the lack of descriptions besides the basics offer a not so powerful impact on what the situation must have really been like.
But of course just the possibility of what the story suggests, of what it is we read and not what they really felt and saw is enough reason to not mitigate the feelings involved. Just because the story doesn't stress it, it doesn't mean it wasn't hell to go through it.
All in all, the theme and protagonists of this story are deserving of anyone's recognition but the way the story is told feels a little too clinical and doesn't really convey all the challenges, the heartbreaks and pain those people went though. I can understand why the story is shaped like this but the emotions it could bring forth aren't as strong as they could have.
Grade: 7/10
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