The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Warmer weather brings hope to the camp. Baretski comes to Lale to ask for a favor. He tells Lale the two of them are like brothers, which Lale privately disagrees with. Baretski wants Lale to somehow smuggle in a pair of nylon stockings for his girlfriend. Lale agrees to try. 

Seeking out Victor, Lale learns from Yuri that Victor is sick. Yuri thinks he can obtain the stockings; Lale pays him with two diamonds. 

An American aircraft passes over the camp, causing an uproar of jubilation among the prisoners. Many shout and jump, hoping the plane will drop bombs. However, the plane flies off without incident. The guards open fire on the assembled crowd, and Lale takes cover.

Back at his block, Lale discovers that many Romany children have been hit with bullets. Lale helps Nadya shepherd the surviving children back inside; they give them chocolate, to help calm them; however, they “cannot be comforted. Most of them remain in a silent state of trauma” (162). Outside, the bodies of the murdered Romanies are piled up for the SS. Lale says a Hebrew prayer for the dead.

Lale reflects on the importance of the plane. He realizes that it is April 3, 1944: he has been a prisoner in Auschwitz for nearly two years. He holds onto the thought that the American plane signals change.

Lale recalls the events that led to his internment. A non-Jewish friend had warned him about impending persecutory actions to be taken against the Jews by the Slovak government, in accordance with the Nazis’ wishes. His friend manages to land Lale a job in the Slovak National Party, as he believed this would protect Lale from prosecution. Lale ignores the mandate that all Jews wear a yellow Star of David in public. He saw himself as a Slovak, rather than a Jew; to him, his Jewish heritage “was incidental and had never before interfered with what he did or who he befriended” (164).

Lale had advanced warning that the Germans wanted the Slovak government to transport Jews to German work camps as a source of slave labor. Slovakia capitulated with the Nazis in order to be left in peace.

Two years later, Lale is in a concentration camp based on race. Because of the diasporic nature of the Jewish and Romany communities, Lale cannot see what threat the Nazis see in them. 

Gita asks if Lale has lost his religious faith. He thinks he has, due to the latrine murders he witnessed on his first night in Birkenau. This saddens Gita, who still holds on to her faith.

Lale promises her that he believes her faith is important; they can even raise their children in accordance with it. Gita worries that she is now infertile, but Lale is confident that she will recover once they escape from Auschwitz.

When he returns to his room, something is wrong. The Romany children are silent. SS officers have found the wealth of jewels and food that Lale keeps under his mattress. He is escorted away at gunpoint, “marched out of the camp for what he believes will be the last time” (169).

The soldiers bring Lale before Houstek. When questioned, Lale says he does not know the names of the prisoners who bring him the contraband. Houstek orders the soldiers to take Lale to Block 11, the notorious torture and punishment block. On the way, he tries to remember his family. It is difficult; the pain is too great. He mentally says goodbye to them and to Gita.

For two days, Lale awaits what he believes to be certain death in a cell in Block 11. On the third day, Jakub, the giant American whom Lale rescued, enters and gives him some thin soup. Jakub is shocked to see Lale.

The two reunite. Jakub, as Lale predicted, was given a job by the SS. He is a torturer, a killer for the Nazis. Jakub tells Lale, “‘Like you, Tätowierer, I do what I have to do to survive’” (172). He is assigned to torture the names out of Lale. However, Jakub has not forgotten Lale’s kindness. He will beat Lale as required, but Jakub will then kill him before Lale divulges any names. He does not want to be responsible for the death of more innocents than he must be. Lale understands. Jakub leaves, promising to return soon.

Lale remembers a scene from his childhood. His father is angry because Lale has yet again failed to show up at work. Lale hides behind his mother; he is very much a mama’s boy. He recalls the advice his mother used to give him and cries, imagining Gita in her arms.

Jakub returns as promised and takes Lale to the torture chamber, a dark room with manacles on the wall and a birch switch on the floor. Jakub does his best to inflict as little damage as possible while administering a realistic beating to Lale, in order to satisfy the watching SS officers. Jakub breaks Lale’s nose and flays his back open with the birch stick. Jakub whispers to Lale to deny knowledge of the names and then to pretend to faint; Lale does so. Jakub tells the SS that Lale “is a weak Jew. If he knew the names, he would’ve told us by now’” (176). The SS officers seems satisfied and the beating ceases.

Jakub tries his best to take care of Lale over the next few days, dressing his wounds and nursing him back to health. Lale realizes that due to the injuries to his back, “he will be marked for life. Perhaps the Tätowierer deserves that’” (177).

Eventually, two SS officers come to his cell. He expects to be taken to the execution wall. However, he is placed among some other prisoners and taken in a truck back to Birkenau.

Lale is taken back to Houstek’s office. The commander is astonished that he is alive. He vows to make Lale perform extreme manual labor before he dies. Lale is dragged back to his old room in Block 31. Two prisoners bring him food and wish him luck.

That night, Lale dreams about the two times he left home. The first was a normal departure for a young man, full of hope for the future. The second was more uncertain. This was the train journey that took him to Auschwitz. He remembers being herded onto the train, and falls asleep with the sound of the car doors slamming ringing in his head.

The next morning, he is helped to roll call by the two kind prisoners. After breakfast, their labor begins: the prisoners carry rocks from one side of the prison yard to the other and then back again. Lale struggles. He has been greatly weakened by his time in the torture block. His life will be on the line if he cannot keep up tomorrow.

At the end of the day, Lale runs into Baretski. Lale begs him to tell Gita that he is alive and back in Block 31. He needs Gita to tell this to Cilka. Laughing characteristically, Baretski agrees. Surprisingly, the SS officer actually follows through. Gita is elated that Lale is alive; Cilka will try to see what she can do to help Lale. That night, Cilka uses her intimate position with Schwarzhuber to ask the Nazi for a favor.

After the next day’s Sisyphean laboring, Lale helps carry a murdered man back to the camp. Lale “hates himself for having thoughts only of the pain it causes him, with little compassion for the dead man” (185). Back in camp, Cilka and Schwarzhuber are waiting for him. Schwarzhuber instructs a guard to take Lale back to the “Gypsy camp.” Nadya and the other Romanies are astonished to see him, as they assumed he was dead.

Baretski wakes Lale the next morning. He tells Lale that he is astonished that he has survived the torture block. Baretski seems relieved that Lale is alive. Leon was not an efficient replacement. Baretski’s girlfriend has dumped him, but he does not blame it on any of Lale’s advice. He warns Lale against trying to accrue more contraband.

Lale and Leon reunite once again. Leon is overjoyed to see him. The two get back to work tattooing newcomers to Birkenau. Later, Lale surprises Gita and Dana. The two are astonished and relieved to see him. Dana weeps; Gita and Lale kiss. Lale vows never to leave Gita again. He will not tell Gita what he suffered, and again promises that they have a future together.

On his way back to his room, Lale is approached by two boys, who offer him a diamond as payment to try and pay for food. Lale wonders, “How many lives does a cat have?” (192).