where there is love there is life
Author : Heather Morris
Title : The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Published : 11/01/2018
Pages : 288
Genre : Historical Fiction
Publisher : Zaffre
In 1942, Lale Sokolov arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival - scratching numbers into his fellow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust. 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 was determined not only to survive himself, but to ensure this woman, Gita, did, too.
Once again I have returned to the subject of the Holocaust. Its one that I feel is a very important subject. it is rapidly coming to the day when there will be no one left alive who was an eyewitness to the horrific events. In the tattooist of Auschwitz, the author chose to blend the real-life account of Ludwig "Lale" Eisenberg with a fictional story of her own creation. It's an interesting step to take as mos author choose to pick one side or the other.
For me, Lale was a fascinating character and person to get to know. More often than not we learn of the prisoners of concentration camps trying to make it from one day to the next all the while being worked to death. Lale chose to take a different step and work for the very system that was trying to destroy his people. This undertaking was not done in a light way and through the story, we get to learn how much it torments him. in his mind, the defiling of peoples body by placing a tattoo on their skin is a big deal. In our modern lives, i think this is a difficult thing to come to terms with as having a tattoo in and of its self is not thought of as something that worries people. Although I can't say how I would feel if someone forced one on me especially as a form of identification
In Lale's case, he decides to do whatever it takes to make it to the day when he can walk out the gates a free man. While he was not one of the people removing bodies from the gas chambers or loading them into the ovens it still cannot have been an easy detection to make. It gave me a lot to think about in the reading of this book, in his position what choices would I have made and would I have even survived and made it out. In his case, though he doesn't do it simply to help himself, whenever presented with the opportunity to help someone else he does. In a way it felt like the balancing of Anubis scales, him trying to offset the harm he felt he was causing and to find peace for himself.
It is thought his job that he meets Gita a young women who's arm he puts a number on. While their interactions start off slow he soon falls in love with her and can't imagine life without her. Their story plays out a mix between a sweet tale of young love paired with a harrowing tale of suffering and heartache. This is the backbone of the book and allows it to have its own voice it a sea of books that cover similar topics.
Morris presents a story that despite the topic is a heartwarming tale of overcoming everything in the fight for love. In many ways, you get a sense for why the real Lale was apprehensive to share his life's story with the world. I think that despite all he did for others he still felt a great deal of shame for his part in the holocaust. By the time I got to the end I felt it was a story that people should know about. It gives a very human side to the Jewish people who worked within the Nazi administration and the toll it took on them both psychically and mentally.
Once again I have returned to the subject of the Holocaust. Its one that I feel is a very important subject. it is rapidly coming to the day when there will be no one left alive who was an eyewitness to the horrific events. In the tattooist of Auschwitz, the author chose to blend the real-life account of Ludwig "Lale" Eisenberg with a fictional story of her own creation. It's an interesting step to take as mos author choose to pick one side or the other.
For me, Lale was a fascinating character and person to get to know. More often than not we learn of the prisoners of concentration camps trying to make it from one day to the next all the while being worked to death. Lale chose to take a different step and work for the very system that was trying to destroy his people. This undertaking was not done in a light way and through the story, we get to learn how much it torments him. in his mind, the defiling of peoples body by placing a tattoo on their skin is a big deal. In our modern lives, i think this is a difficult thing to come to terms with as having a tattoo in and of its self is not thought of as something that worries people. Although I can't say how I would feel if someone forced one on me especially as a form of identification
In Lale's case, he decides to do whatever it takes to make it to the day when he can walk out the gates a free man. While he was not one of the people removing bodies from the gas chambers or loading them into the ovens it still cannot have been an easy detection to make. It gave me a lot to think about in the reading of this book, in his position what choices would I have made and would I have even survived and made it out. In his case, though he doesn't do it simply to help himself, whenever presented with the opportunity to help someone else he does. In a way it felt like the balancing of Anubis scales, him trying to offset the harm he felt he was causing and to find peace for himself.
It is thought his job that he meets Gita a young women who's arm he puts a number on. While their interactions start off slow he soon falls in love with her and can't imagine life without her. Their story plays out a mix between a sweet tale of young love paired with a harrowing tale of suffering and heartache. This is the backbone of the book and allows it to have its own voice it a sea of books that cover similar topics.
Morris presents a story that despite the topic is a heartwarming tale of overcoming everything in the fight for love. In many ways, you get a sense for why the real Lale was apprehensive to share his life's story with the world. I think that despite all he did for others he still felt a great deal of shame for his part in the holocaust. By the time I got to the end I felt it was a story that people should know about. It gives a very human side to the Jewish people who worked within the Nazi administration and the toll it took on them both psychically and mentally.
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