Honest Book Review for The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris.

Posted On February 27, 2022

Hi Readers! We are at the end of February! For a change, I felt every single day of February & did not feel as if where the month passed me by. This is mainly because I read 10 books this month! When I think of the first book I read this month, ‘The Forty Rules of Love’, I feel like I read it a year ago. I think reading as many books as possible in a month somehow makes me feel like it has been a long & productive month. In fact, lately I remember the events in my own life corresponding to the books I was reading at the time!

‘An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good’? Oh yes, I was unwell when I read that book. ‘Dark Matter’? Of course! I started it on a Wednesday when it was a particularly busy week at work. Do you do this too? Or am I the only one? Anyway, I remember finishing The Tattooist of Auschwitz in one day – Saturday. I also remember I finished it in a day because we had guests coming the next day. Okay, I will stop before it gets creepy. Jump into the review!  

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.

A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov’s experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.

~~THOUGHTS~~

Before I share my thoughts, which are mostly negative, I wanted to put my guilt out there. Reviewing a book critically which is based on a true story from the holocaust period was difficult for me. I have great respect for the survivors from the concentration camps, and towards Lale & Gita. In the hands of another author, this book would have made wonders. But, with Heather Morris’ writing, it did not work for me at all.

~~INSPIRED FROM THE REAL STORY OF LALE SOKOLOV~~

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is inspired from the real life of Lale Sokolov, who was given the job of a tattooist at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in 1942. But, in combination of his life story, the author has also drawn up fictional characters making this book a work of fiction. When I read the author’s note before starting the book, I had high expectations. So far whichever wartime historical fiction books I had read were completely fictional but they still destroyed me. So, to read a book inspired from a real-life story was something I was intrigued by, but it led to disappointment. The author could have combined them in a better way so as the readers could get the best of both worlds, but I suppose while keeping Lale’s story as real as possible, the fiction part of the book did not touch the surface. If it had been a biography, then it may have worked quite better, in my opinion.

~~MOSTLY UNTOUCHED BY ATROCITIES OF WAR~~

Needless to say that during World War II, so many lives were lost. Some had easy deaths, but others had tortured deaths. All the fictional books I read around this genre, were ones where the protagonists had suffered a great ordeal. But then, in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, we see Lale whose life is quite straight forward. Yes, he is in a concentration camp. But, he luckily gets the job of a tattooist which helps him survive. Because of this job, he is relatively safer than other prisoners, he gets more food than other prisoners & he can even overrule some officers because of his position. He does not have freedom, but he has everything else that almost no other prisoners are lucky enough to have. He also gets food from outside by trading jewels & cash which a few female prisoners acquire for him. He shares all these extra privileges with other prisoners. He gets chocolate & jewellery for his prison girlfriend. None of this stash which he keeps under his bed ever gets checked until one time it does. His life is spared when this stash is discovered too.

I do not want to say that a prisoner of war had an easy life, but I wonder why was he chosen as the protagonist of an entire novel when he clearly had an easier life than mostly all other prisoners at that time in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. I did not like reading this even a little bit because of how Lale was portrayed, how the writing was structured, how Lale & Gita’s relationship was written & how it made me feel nothing.

Was the point of this book to share a survivor’s story?

Are we to ignore that there was no mention of the tattoos which were unwillingly stamped on prisoners for the entirety of their lives?

Why weave a romantic story between two prisoners during WWII?

Why didn’t this supposedly impossible love story touch my heart?

Why was the writing so flat that it did not make me connect or empathize with any of the characters?

~~ROMANTIC TALE OF LALE & GITA~~

If not core historical fiction, I read it to give the romantic story line a chance, but alas. Lale & Gita are both satisfactory characters individually. But, together, I never felt any chemistry between them. It could be because of an earlier era. But, given the whole ‘we will die any moment’ doom attached to the story, the romance never truly reached its potential. I kept waiting for it to bloom till the end. I also felt that their ending was miraculous & also a bit exaggerated. They found each other so easily after the war ended that I simply couldn’t entirely believe it.

~~NOT FOR HARDCORE FANS OF WARTIME HISTORICAL FICTION~~

I suppose when you start a wartime historical fiction book completely prepared to get emotionally destroyed, and then everything happens easily with minimal trauma to the characters, it becomes a disappointment, which is just so ironic. I guess that’s why I was in that weird phase before, during & after reading this book. And, because I was the same when the book ended as I was when I started it, it was not an emotionally rewarding book for me. I want all the emotions in me stirred up while reading books of such kind. I want to feel plain old hatred towards bullies. I want to feel hope for my main characters so that they see the war through. I want to feel misery & despair & loss & tragedy, but also love & hope & joy through words so masterfully & sentimentally written that I get something from the novel not only in terms of knowledge, but also in terms of emotional intelligence. Unfortunately, The Tattooist of Auschwitz was not it for me. I have rated it at 3/5 stars, because I couldn’t rate below it because after all, it is inspired from a real life.

Here’s my February round up. Stay tuned for more!

Until next time,