I finished reading The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Australian author, Heather Morris, last night, and...it's a touching love story. As a literary romance, it isn't remarkable, nowhere near the opening paragraphs of Wuthering Heights nor The Unbearable Lightness of Being but it was unique in its setting and milieu, that is, the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, during the Second World War.
I decided to read Morris' book because it was, and still is, sliding up and down global bestseller lists. After having read it, I'd also like to propose an alternate title (or subtitle) namely, A Digestible Version of Auschwitz for the Faint-hearted because this was precisely my impression of the book; that it offered readers a diluted and softened view of a brutal Nazi concentration camp. This is Auschwitz: the Valentine's edition.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz tells the story of Lale and Gita who had met at Auschwitz and fell in love. Both were Slovakian Jews. While incarcerated at the camp, Lale worked for the Schutzstaffel (SS) in the Politiesche Abteilung (Political Department) as the tattooist of newly arrived prisoners, and she, Gita, worked in ''the Canada'', a sorting department of bags, clothes, shoes and belongings taken away from newly arrived prisoners.
Based on the story, it was clear that Lale didn't see himself as a Nazi collaborator and neither did Gita. They did what they had to, to survive, even if it meant exchanging the valuables taken away from other prisoners for luxuries, such as chocolate. Lale's position as tattooist allowed him certain freedoms and privileges which he used to make their imprisonment in the concentration camp more bearable, until their eventual escape.
By including copies of official documents and photographs in her book, Morris led me to believe that The Tattooist of Auschwitz was a true story. Look, see, she seemed to say, here are photographs of Ludwig ''Lale'' Eisenberg, the tattooist, and Gisela ''Gita'' Fuhrmannova, both of whom had actually existed in the flesh, and who had actually survived Auschwitz-Birkenau (see attached also appendix of journals documenting their names, arrivals and prisoner numbers). In spite of the aforementioned, i.e. photographs, copies of Auschwitz journals and registers, the following appeared on the front matter page (the page dedicated to a book's publishing information): ''This is a work of fiction, based on the personal memories of Lale Sokolov. Every reasonable attempt to verify the facts against available documentation has been made.'' In her author's note, Morris also added: ''This is a work of fiction, based on the first-hand testimony of one Auschwitz survivor; it is not an authoritative record of the events of the Holocaust.''
So, then, I wondered to myself, was the book purely a work of fiction, or was it a biography? Had Lale actually been the Taetowierer at Auschwitz-Birkenau or was that part of the fiction? If indeed it was a prima facie work of fiction, it wouldn't have included photographs and other documents to create the impression that it was a true story, and that all dates, events, names, places and characters in the book were, therefore, also true. Surely, the characters' names would, at the very least, have been changed, had that been the case, to protect the privacy and identities of the real people involved so that the author might enjoy the freedoms of literary licence? And yet, strangely, The Tattooist of Auschwitz read like a hardcore biography, with photographs and supporting documentation. I am puzzled is an understatement. I also don't know, as I'm writing this review, given the aforementioned, whether to believe parts, or the whole, or zero of the book's content beyond the fact that Lale and Gita had existed.
Historical events, thanks to 20:20 hindsight, of course, occur within a proverbial ''bigger picture'' and running alongside that horse, is a grand narrative. Something about the way Morris presented the story, her style, was unsettling. I felt the way she relayed Lale and Gita's love story was flat and superficial. Try as I might, I couldn't find a genuine and authentic connection between the main characters. In other words, I didn't feel the love. A lot of the action takes place at non-verbal levels when a man or woman falls in love, and good writers have the skills and ability to put into words and describe credibly those very feelings, thoughts and behaviours so that readers may empathise, understand and experience something similar, or, at least, relate with the characters. Morris' style of telling this love story left me entirely unmoved.
Second, the setting for this story, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was, in reality, a killing camp; an integral part of the Endloesung (Final Solution), one of the most brutal concentration camps in human history, and the embodiment of an ideology. Nazi Germany operated more than forty (40) such camps under the Drittes Reich (Third Empire). Millions of people of Jewish, Roma, African, Middle-Eastern ancestry, people with disabilities, political dissidents, the so-called asoziale, a term used to refer to ''scum'', ''inferior'' and ''unwanted'' people in broader German society, were murdered in these camps. Prisoners in concentration camps, including children, who often doubled as slaves, were starved, tortured and murdered, arbitrarily. Auschwitz-Birkenau wasn't a garden party. I couldn't find sufficient emphasis on the nature and purpose of the camp in Morris' book.
The manner also in which Morris related disturbing events could best be described as ''skimming across the surface''; in other words, it was unconvincing and lacked depth. For example, the fine grey ash from the crematoria falling night and day on the buildings and prisoners of Auschwitz was briefly mentioned during a friendly soccer match between the SS and the prisoners. The real story was that the ash blew out from the massive chimneys of the crematoria where the bodies of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who had been murdered, were cremated. Morris used trim, little sentences, like remarks made in passing, with minimal emphasis, feeling and impact, not too much detail, almost as if she wanted to diminish the actual events, the real horrors that had taken place at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In a confusing scene in the book, Gita coyly, almost flirtatiously, assured Lale that it was highly unlikely that she or any of the women in the camp could fall pregnant. And...that was it. The chapter ends with the couple kissing. The unromantic fact about the position of women, in particular, in Nazi concentration camps, was that many women had stopped menstruating because they were starved and emaciated. In addition, women who were visibly pregnant were put to death, or forced to abort their pregnancies, advanced pregnancies, as well, were sterilised without anaesthesia, did not have access to sanitary products, were routinely subjected to humiliating and invasive medical examinations, body shaving, used against their will in medical and scientific experiments, were paraded nude in public, and, at Auschwitz-Birkenau, specifically, that mothers (lactating women) and their babies were put to death in gas-chambers or by lethal injection, upon arrival. Women often traded sex for food and better treatment in the camps. The latter were indeed Gita and her friends' realities but Morris made very little mention of the above in her book.
I always read reviews after and never before reading a specific book, to get my own sense of what's what, the lay of the land, so to speak, of the narrative, plot, characters, etc. In a December review of the book, the Auschwitz Memorial Research Centre (AMRC) accused Morris of ''blurring the authenticity'' of the history of Auschwitz. Based on the centre's response to the book, it is clear that I'm not the only one perplexed about whether or not The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a biography or a work of fiction! The AMRC pointed out, in detail, numerous fabrications and irregularities in Morris' story and highlighted improbabilities. Read here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/books/tattooist-of-auschwitz-heather-morris-facts.html . Another reviewer of the book point-blank asked how much licence authors were permitted with historical facts.
Morris wrote Lale Sokolov's ''biography'', dare I say, after she was introduced to him in Australia. It took her three years to write and complete The Tattooist of Auschwitz, as a screenplay, first, and, most recently, a novel. Lale passed away at the age of ninety, in 2006, three years after his beloved Gita. This book was indeed his biography, if he had been the tattooist, to begin with, because his and Gita's photographs were included in the book, adding weight to my conviction that this was a biography (or memoir, here used in the strictest sense, i.e. as a literary work focused on a specific event in a person's life), even though Morris made it known that her book was a work of fiction.
Lale's son, Gary Sokolov, apparently had his own issues with Morris' book; one being that his father was fondly called Lali, short for Ludwig, and yet, Morris, who had published his parents' photographs, personal information and documents in the book, insisted on spelling his father's name as Lale, throughout. Was this an innocent case of misspelling her protagonist's name? I don't think so. Morris has been writing for years and is an experienced author. Experienced authors, native English-speakers to boot, do not misspell simple names, by accident, unless Morris didn't do her homework and sufficient research about her protagonist.
That said, The Tattooist of Auschwitz was an engrossing if uncomfortable read because Lale, or the real Lali, had worked for the Schutzstaffel (SS) in Auschwitz-Birkenau as the tattooist of prisoners, and had, consequently, enjoyed certain freedoms and privileges not available to the rest of prison population. If true, at all, his position had been unique, including his desire to stay alive, at all costs. This aspect of the story rang true for me even though the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau had been diluted and muted in the book to such an extent that anyone reading it could be forgiven for thinking that it hadn't been such a horrific place, after all. As I'd mentioned before, as a romance, the story was unremarkable, typical boy met girl story, who fell in love, except for its most unusual setting.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris was published in September, 2018, by HarperCollins, under the categories historical fiction / biographical fiction.
I decided to read Morris' book because it was, and still is, sliding up and down global bestseller lists. After having read it, I'd also like to propose an alternate title (or subtitle) namely, A Digestible Version of Auschwitz for the Faint-hearted because this was precisely my impression of the book; that it offered readers a diluted and softened view of a brutal Nazi concentration camp. This is Auschwitz: the Valentine's edition.
Based on the story, it was clear that Lale didn't see himself as a Nazi collaborator and neither did Gita. They did what they had to, to survive, even if it meant exchanging the valuables taken away from other prisoners for luxuries, such as chocolate. Lale's position as tattooist allowed him certain freedoms and privileges which he used to make their imprisonment in the concentration camp more bearable, until their eventual escape.
By including copies of official documents and photographs in her book, Morris led me to believe that The Tattooist of Auschwitz was a true story. Look, see, she seemed to say, here are photographs of Ludwig ''Lale'' Eisenberg, the tattooist, and Gisela ''Gita'' Fuhrmannova, both of whom had actually existed in the flesh, and who had actually survived Auschwitz-Birkenau (see attached also appendix of journals documenting their names, arrivals and prisoner numbers). In spite of the aforementioned, i.e. photographs, copies of Auschwitz journals and registers, the following appeared on the front matter page (the page dedicated to a book's publishing information): ''This is a work of fiction, based on the personal memories of Lale Sokolov. Every reasonable attempt to verify the facts against available documentation has been made.'' In her author's note, Morris also added: ''This is a work of fiction, based on the first-hand testimony of one Auschwitz survivor; it is not an authoritative record of the events of the Holocaust.''
So, then, I wondered to myself, was the book purely a work of fiction, or was it a biography? Had Lale actually been the Taetowierer at Auschwitz-Birkenau or was that part of the fiction? If indeed it was a prima facie work of fiction, it wouldn't have included photographs and other documents to create the impression that it was a true story, and that all dates, events, names, places and characters in the book were, therefore, also true. Surely, the characters' names would, at the very least, have been changed, had that been the case, to protect the privacy and identities of the real people involved so that the author might enjoy the freedoms of literary licence? And yet, strangely, The Tattooist of Auschwitz read like a hardcore biography, with photographs and supporting documentation. I am puzzled is an understatement. I also don't know, as I'm writing this review, given the aforementioned, whether to believe parts, or the whole, or zero of the book's content beyond the fact that Lale and Gita had existed.
Historical events, thanks to 20:20 hindsight, of course, occur within a proverbial ''bigger picture'' and running alongside that horse, is a grand narrative. Something about the way Morris presented the story, her style, was unsettling. I felt the way she relayed Lale and Gita's love story was flat and superficial. Try as I might, I couldn't find a genuine and authentic connection between the main characters. In other words, I didn't feel the love. A lot of the action takes place at non-verbal levels when a man or woman falls in love, and good writers have the skills and ability to put into words and describe credibly those very feelings, thoughts and behaviours so that readers may empathise, understand and experience something similar, or, at least, relate with the characters. Morris' style of telling this love story left me entirely unmoved.
Second, the setting for this story, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was, in reality, a killing camp; an integral part of the Endloesung (Final Solution), one of the most brutal concentration camps in human history, and the embodiment of an ideology. Nazi Germany operated more than forty (40) such camps under the Drittes Reich (Third Empire). Millions of people of Jewish, Roma, African, Middle-Eastern ancestry, people with disabilities, political dissidents, the so-called asoziale, a term used to refer to ''scum'', ''inferior'' and ''unwanted'' people in broader German society, were murdered in these camps. Prisoners in concentration camps, including children, who often doubled as slaves, were starved, tortured and murdered, arbitrarily. Auschwitz-Birkenau wasn't a garden party. I couldn't find sufficient emphasis on the nature and purpose of the camp in Morris' book.
The manner also in which Morris related disturbing events could best be described as ''skimming across the surface''; in other words, it was unconvincing and lacked depth. For example, the fine grey ash from the crematoria falling night and day on the buildings and prisoners of Auschwitz was briefly mentioned during a friendly soccer match between the SS and the prisoners. The real story was that the ash blew out from the massive chimneys of the crematoria where the bodies of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who had been murdered, were cremated. Morris used trim, little sentences, like remarks made in passing, with minimal emphasis, feeling and impact, not too much detail, almost as if she wanted to diminish the actual events, the real horrors that had taken place at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In a confusing scene in the book, Gita coyly, almost flirtatiously, assured Lale that it was highly unlikely that she or any of the women in the camp could fall pregnant. And...that was it. The chapter ends with the couple kissing. The unromantic fact about the position of women, in particular, in Nazi concentration camps, was that many women had stopped menstruating because they were starved and emaciated. In addition, women who were visibly pregnant were put to death, or forced to abort their pregnancies, advanced pregnancies, as well, were sterilised without anaesthesia, did not have access to sanitary products, were routinely subjected to humiliating and invasive medical examinations, body shaving, used against their will in medical and scientific experiments, were paraded nude in public, and, at Auschwitz-Birkenau, specifically, that mothers (lactating women) and their babies were put to death in gas-chambers or by lethal injection, upon arrival. Women often traded sex for food and better treatment in the camps. The latter were indeed Gita and her friends' realities but Morris made very little mention of the above in her book.
I always read reviews after and never before reading a specific book, to get my own sense of what's what, the lay of the land, so to speak, of the narrative, plot, characters, etc. In a December review of the book, the Auschwitz Memorial Research Centre (AMRC) accused Morris of ''blurring the authenticity'' of the history of Auschwitz. Based on the centre's response to the book, it is clear that I'm not the only one perplexed about whether or not The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a biography or a work of fiction! The AMRC pointed out, in detail, numerous fabrications and irregularities in Morris' story and highlighted improbabilities. Read here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/books/tattooist-of-auschwitz-heather-morris-facts.html . Another reviewer of the book point-blank asked how much licence authors were permitted with historical facts.
Morris wrote Lale Sokolov's ''biography'', dare I say, after she was introduced to him in Australia. It took her three years to write and complete The Tattooist of Auschwitz, as a screenplay, first, and, most recently, a novel. Lale passed away at the age of ninety, in 2006, three years after his beloved Gita. This book was indeed his biography, if he had been the tattooist, to begin with, because his and Gita's photographs were included in the book, adding weight to my conviction that this was a biography (or memoir, here used in the strictest sense, i.e. as a literary work focused on a specific event in a person's life), even though Morris made it known that her book was a work of fiction.
Lale's son, Gary Sokolov, apparently had his own issues with Morris' book; one being that his father was fondly called Lali, short for Ludwig, and yet, Morris, who had published his parents' photographs, personal information and documents in the book, insisted on spelling his father's name as Lale, throughout. Was this an innocent case of misspelling her protagonist's name? I don't think so. Morris has been writing for years and is an experienced author. Experienced authors, native English-speakers to boot, do not misspell simple names, by accident, unless Morris didn't do her homework and sufficient research about her protagonist.
That said, The Tattooist of Auschwitz was an engrossing if uncomfortable read because Lale, or the real Lali, had worked for the Schutzstaffel (SS) in Auschwitz-Birkenau as the tattooist of prisoners, and had, consequently, enjoyed certain freedoms and privileges not available to the rest of prison population. If true, at all, his position had been unique, including his desire to stay alive, at all costs. This aspect of the story rang true for me even though the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau had been diluted and muted in the book to such an extent that anyone reading it could be forgiven for thinking that it hadn't been such a horrific place, after all. As I'd mentioned before, as a romance, the story was unremarkable, typical boy met girl story, who fell in love, except for its most unusual setting.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris was published in September, 2018, by HarperCollins, under the categories historical fiction / biographical fiction.
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