The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Through what country does the livestock train car that transports Lale from Slovakia to Auschwitz pass?

A) Austria

B) Ukraine

C) Hungary

D) Czechoslovakia

2. Which of the following best describes Lale’s relationship with Baretski, the SS officer who is his minder?

A) Lale secretly admires Baretski for his power and authority, even though it is taboo for a Jew to idolize an SS officer.

B) Lale simply does as Baretski tells him to, because he knows he must accept the orders without question or be killed.

C) Lale must cautiously maintain his relationship with Baretski. Though Baretski is antithetical to all Lale’s values, he is a valuable connection for Lale.

D) Lale and Baretski, against all odds, seem to have a genuine friendship. Lale can speak his mind freely with Baretski.

3. Unlike most SS officers, Baretski is not German. What nationality is he?

A) Hungarian

B) Romanian

C) Austrian

D) Polish

4. When Gita falls ill with typhus, what favor does Baretski agree to do for Lale?

A) Baretski has extra rations of food and drink brought to her bunk.

B) Baretski transfers her into administration, where the heating will help her heal.

C) Baretski has an herbal medicine known to alleviate typhoid covertly administered to her.

D) Baretski arranges for Gita not to have to work for the next week, allowing her to rest.

5. What group of new arrivals does Baretski describe to Lale as “the filth of Europe, even worse than you”?

A) Romany people

B) People with mental disabilities

C) People with physical disabilities

D) Gay people

6. What memory of Lale’s family does a young Romany child bring to Lale’s mind?

A) When he saw his father cry for the first time

B) When his mother first took him for a walk around the neighborhood

C) When his father showed him where to look for nettles in the Polish countryside

D) When his mother wore bright red lipstick to go out dancing with his father

7. Why does Lale want to rig the soccer game between the SS officers and the concentration camp prisoners so that the prisoners will lose?

A) Baretski has told them that, if they lose, he will see what he can do about letting them go free.

B) The prisoners cannot risk incurring the wrath of the SS by shaming them with defeat.

C) Lale thinks there is a chance that it will earn them favor with the other SS officers.

D) If they win, the prisoners will be under intense scrutiny, and Lale wants to fly under the radar.

8. Which new arrival in Gita’s block is from her hometown, Vranov nad Topl’ou?

A) Gita’s first-grade teacher, Miriam

B) Gita’s former babysitter, Erika

C) Gita’s neighbor, Hilda

D) Gita’s mother’s hairdresser, Saša

9. When Lale and Gita are physically intimate for the first time, what emotional response does it prompt in Lale?

A) It makes him fearful. He loves her deeply but they’re bound to be torn apart in this context, and he worries he will not survive without her.

B) It makes him elated. The bliss of being intimate with Gita sweeps away his troubles and makes him temporarily forget their plight.

C) It makes him feel committed. He can love no other now that he has been with Gita, and he wants them to live and pursue freedom together.

D) It makes him feel sad. He is overcome with grief, thinking about how both he and Gita are destined for death like so many other Jews.

10. When SS officers open fire on a group of prisoners who shout at an American aircraft, several Romany children are hit with bullets. What do Lale and Nadya give the surviving children to soothe them?

A) Coca-Cola

B) Licorice

C) Lollipops

D) Chocolate

11. When Lale confesses to Gita that he may have lost his religious faith, what incident does he cite as the reason?

A) The murders he saw on his first night in Birkenau, in the latrine

B) The recent death of innocent Romany children

C) The horrific sexual abuse that Cilka has endured

D) The evil of Doctor Mengele’s experiments, including Leon’s castration

12. After Lale is tortured in Block 11, he is tasked with helping carry a murdered man back to the camp. What about this experience makes Lale “hate himself”?

A) He feels a sense of jealousy toward this dead man, whose pain and suffering are over.

B) He notices that the dead man has a gold ring and makes a mental note that he should steal it.

C) He can no longer remember this dead man’s name—only his tattooed number.

D) He feels no compassion for the dead man because he can think only of his own physical wounds.

13. After Nadya is taken away along with Lale’s adoptive Romany family, what is the one thing Lale wants in his cell block that night?

A) Gita

B) Silence

C) Prayer

D) Revenge

14. What traumatic event tells Gita it is time to move on from the attic of an older woman in a Soviet-controlled village where she and several Polish girls are hiding?

A) The older woman attacks them with a broom.

B) The older woman is harassed by Nazis, who suspect she is harboring fugitives.

C) A Russian officer drunkenly attempts to rape one of the Polish girls.

D) The villagers want to turn the fugitives in to the Nazis for profit.

15. How does Lale’s sister Goldie react when she first finds out Lale is alive?

A) She is overtaken with laughter.

B) She bursts into tears.

C) She embraces him.

D) She faints.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. Castration, inflicted upon Leon by Doctor Mengele, is a punishment that runs deeper than its obvious physical effects. How so? Why is this a uniquely traumatizing and brutal form of punishment?

2. When Lale and Gita flee to Australia, one of the few things Gita takes with them is a portrait of a Romany woman. Why is this meaningful?