The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Lale Sokolov is one among many Jewish prisoners who has been taken from their homes and is currently being transported in a livestock train car to an unknown destination (though the reader, through Morris’s use of dramatic irony, already knows the destination to be Auschwitz). In an attempt to save his family, Lale volunteered to go to a German work camp in accordance with a new Nazi decree. His brother, Max, had volunteered first, but Lale insisted he go instead. Max has a wife and children; Lale does not.

Lale seems to command some respect among the filthy and terrified prisoners. Whether it is because of his neat suit or because he speaks multiple languages, the other prisoners often turn to him for reassurance or advice. He offers “words of encouragement, trying to turn their fear into hope” (4).

In the crowded livestock car, Lale is pressed against another young man named Aron. Aron speculates on the chances of fighting for their escape, but Lale warns him against it: “‘We have fists, they have rifles—who do you think would win that fight?’” (4). Lale remains reassured that his family will be safe.

Lale is lucky to have situated himself against the side wall of the car. The train is so crowded, nobody can sit down. He can occasionally glimpse the outside world. Across the car, a fight breaks out, and one prisoner kills another. Lale reflects, “Poor bastard. My life is too good to end in this stinkhole” (6).

The train takes them from Slovakia to Czechoslovakia to Poland. The prisoners are starving, thirsty, and exhausted. When the train stops, many try to break out of the livestock car, but to no avail.

The train reaches its final destination. Dogs bark and men shout. The prisoners are ordered off the train and are separated from their luggage. They are guarded by SS soldiers in black uniforms. The soldiers usher them in through gates emblazoned with the infamous slogan “ARBEIT MACHT FREI,” which translates to “Work makes you free” (8).

Lale has already decided to live by the motto “Do as you’re told. And always observe” (10). In the face of the unknown, this is the best advice he can give his fellow prisoners.

A man escorted by soldiers addresses the assembled Jewish prisoners. He introduces himself as Commandant Rudolf Hoess, the commanding officer of Auschwitz. He tells them that the only lesson they will be taught is “‘Do as you are told, and you will go free. Disobey, and there will be consequences’” (11). The prisoners are to be processed and sent to Auschwitz Two-Birkenau.

Lale and the others are handed slips of paper with a number. Lale’s is 32407. An SS officer begins to tattoo the number onto his arm with a “piece of wood with a needle embedded in it” (11). Lale is in shock; he wonders if, for the rest of his life, he “will be defined by this moment, this irregular number: 32407” (12).

The prisoners are ushered to the showers. They are ordered to strip and wait. Lale, almost without thinking, decides to set fire to his clothes because doing so “might be the final act of his own free will” (12). He immediately regrets doing this because of the potential retaliation of the guards; however, he gets away with it.

The prisoners are given “old Russian army uniforms and boots” and sent to the barber before dressing (13). Lale and the other prisoners’ heads are shaved. They dress and walk out into the rain and mud. They are made to march for a long time, heading toward distant spotlights. The prisoners are then herded into another prison; this one has electric fences. The promise of freedom vanishes. Lale reunites with Aron.

Lale and Aron are ushered into Block 7, where they struggle to find a bed. They end up sharing the small sleeping space with two other prisoners. The prisoners beg for food and try to make jokes.

Lale wakes up in the night to relieve himself. Outside, the lavatory is just a ditch in the ground. Three prisoners are defecating. As Lale approaches, two SS officers open fire on the three men. Lale is horrified. He vows to himself, “I will live to leave this place. I will walk out a free man. If there is a hell, I will see these murderers burn in it” (16).

The next morning, the prisoners are awoken early for roll call. Two have died during the night. They will be given a meal in the morning, and one in the evening. The rest of the day will be occupied by hard labor. They are to be presided over by kapos, prisoners who work for the Germans in return for special treatment. There is immediate confusion, as not all of the prisoners speak German. They are fed a foul, thin soup then prepare for the workday.

Lale and the others begin their work. The Nazis are continuing the construction of Auschwitz Two-Birkenau, so the camp can receive more prisoners. Lale meets two Russian prisoners of war, Andor and Boris, who help him get used to laying tiles.

The Russians tell Lale that Auschwitz is expecting many, many more Jewish prisoners. Andor explains the identifying triangles the prisoners are forced to wear. Violent criminals wear green triangles, political dissidents wear red triangles, antisocial prisoners wear black triangles. Enemy soldiers wear no insignia, and Jews wear yellow Stars of David.

That night, the prisoners exchange information and pray. Lale determines that “without a rabbi to guide them, each man prays for what is most important to him” (24). Lale mostly listens, gathering information, which is important to survival in the camp. He wonders about the kapos, who have apparent immunity from the wrath of the guards.

Lale begins to maneuver into his kapo’s good graces. It works; he agrees to help the kapo out however possible. However, Lale wonders “if by moving from builder to lackey he is making a deal with the devil” (26).

One day, Lale watches as a large group of naked prisoners are herded into a bus and gassed to death. He vomits, “standing on the threshold of hell, an inferno of feelings raging inside him” (27). The scene causes Lale to swoon. He nearly succumbs to typhus and is unconscious for an entire week. He awakens to the attentions of an old man, who introduces himself as Pepan, the Tätowierer. He is the one responsible for tattooing new prisoners and is the person who gave Lale his number.

The two immediately get on well. When Lale collapsed, Pepan tells him, a young man helped save Lale. Pepan took care of Lale during the day and Lale’s fellow prisoners took care of him at night.

Pepan is French and a former teacher of economics. His politics landed him in Auschwitz. Pepan offers to help Lale. Their conversation makes Lale wonder, “How do you decide who comes here? What information do you base those decisions on? Race, religion, or politics?” (30).

Pepan offers Lale the opportunity to become a tattooist. It is a safer position than construction. Lale worries about the ethics of a job that hurts and permanently marks people. Pepan warns him, “‘If you don’t take the job, someone will who has less soul than you do, and he will hurt these people more’” (31). He eventually assents to that logic and accepts the job.

When Lale returns to his block, he learns it was Aron who saved him. Aron is now missing, taken by the kapo. He is presumed to have been murdered.

The next day, Lale meets Pepan at the entrance of Birkenau, “[n]ot as an observer but a participant” (33). They observe the arrival of a new load of terrified prisoners. Pepan introduces Lale to the presiding SS officer, Houstek, who seems to approve of Lale’s new position. Pepan warns Lale to act with extreme respect toward the officer if he wants to live. 

Lale dreams of his old life and the pleasure he took in meeting women in the department store where he worked. He is awoken by gunshots. He cannot remember the name of the woman he had been dreaming of.

By now, Lale has been working as a tattooist for some time. However, today he is “stunned at the sight of dozens of young women being escorted their way” (40). The women had numbers stamped on them at Auschwitz, but now need these numbers permanently tattooed at Birkenau. Lale wavers, but Pepan again reminds him that if he does not tattoo these women, someone will and Lale will risk death. This is the scene depicted in the novel’s Prologue.

A few weeks later, Pepan is gone. Houstek informs Lale that he is now the sole Tätowierer. Lale wonders about his friend’s fate. Houstek leaves a young SS officer, Baretski, in charge of Lale. The officer reassigns him to a new block, telling Lale, “‘You now work for the political wing of the SS—shit, maybe I should be scared of you’” (42). Lale asks for an assistant, and the officer grabs a young man from the line of new prisoners. The man introduces himself as Leon.

Baretski instructs Leon to take his supplies to his new room, a small, isolated chamber in one of the newly-constructed blocks. As the Tätowierer, Lale will receive extra rations. Lale goes back to Block 7 to talk to Leon, and he gives him his extra bread. He wants to keep the fact that he gets more food a secret from his old blockmates because he cannot help everyone at once. Watching Leon return, he wonders, “Why do I feel sad about leaving my old position in the camp, even though it offered me no protection?” (45).

Lale’s new position offers him luxuries that are off-limits to normal prisoners. This position of privilege begins to alienate him from the other prisoners almost immediately.

The next day, Baretski takes Lale to the administration, where he receives an extra table and supplies for Leon and instructions for his new day-to-day life. He is safe from just about everyone in the camp—except Baretski.

Lale and Leon’s new job entails sporadic hours, often keeping them working around the clock. Baretski takes his frustrations out on the two of them, often beating Leon and threatening to kill the two of them. He is incredibly cruel to Leon, who does not have the same political protection that Lale now enjoys.

On a Sunday, the one day of the week that the prisoners are not forced to work, Lale runs into the girl that enraptured him, the one he numbered 34902. Their eyes meet, and “[f]or a second time they peer into each other’s souls” (50). Baretski ruins the moment but then offers to help Lale meet the girl again. He tells Lale to report to the doctor; he must work, even though it is Sunday.