The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel

A well written story of life in Auschwitz - a really interesting and informative read

This is a good and interesting read about a man making the best of a very bad situation. The Jewish protagonist's job in Auschwitz is tattooing identification numbers on the arms of incoming prisoners. The Nazis consider it an important job. He is good at it and has a somewhat modest respect from his SS masters. The job comes with privileges including more food, a private room and more liberty to move around inside the walls than what is allowed for the many thousands of other workers in the camp. But I wonder about the story's accuracy. He seems to have it too good. He develops a testy friendship with his chief SS guard, occasionally he mouths off (which would get other prisoners executed on the spot), and he builds an underground network of connections by which he gathers money, jewelry and food from the part of the camp where prisoners' luggage is salvaged, and uses the proceeds to feed prisoners with whom he is friendly and bribe the matron of the barracks where his girl friend lives so they can carry on a sub rosa romance. Really now? Well, the story is allegedly based on a real person, so maybe it's true, or at least some of it. Whether fanciful or not, the book is an interesting tale about one man finding a way to survive and succeed in Hell, and even help a few others and find love for himself. The book has little to say about Auschwitz's infamous adjoining gas chamber driven death camp, Birkenau, so the reader is spared the full horror of Auschwitz. Some may see this as a shortcoming, but I don't believe so. The protagonist lived and worked in the gigantic Auschwitz work camp tattooing train loads of prisoners who were selected to live and work instead of being sent immediately to the gas chambers in Birkenau. He knew about Birkenau and what went on there, but it was not a part of his day to day life, labor and foremost concerns. The book is about those. It focuses on his rather privileged life and adventures in the work camp. In the book, as in his life, the smoking chimneys of the Birkenau crematoria are in the background.

Books like these that tell of a terrible part of history are always hard. It is a reminder of just how horrible and depraved humans can become when made to believe we are so different.As a semi fictional book the author does a good job telling the story of Lale and Gita. To find out that this is based on two very real people's story is both beautiful and heart breaking.I am a true believer that if we ever forget our history we are doomed to repeat ourselves. This story, although I'd not say written well in the traditional sense, is beautifully done. It shows how the Jewish people were resilient, and strong. That did what they had to, in order to survive.To be looked at as someone who agreed with what the Nazis were doing just so you could survive, to be scared of being called a conspirator after the hell you lived through is terrifying.Lale and Gitas story is one I'm glad was recorded. Even if it's not 100% what actually happened as far as some dialogue. It is one of I'm sure hundreds of thousands of incredible and devastating stories.To get a glimpse of some of the actual hell that was Auschwitz. But it also showed that not all Nazis hated all Jews completely. Not that what any of what they did was ok but that they didn't look at them as complete nothings.I hope this story makes it far. I hope that younger generations read this and know that no matter what we face having hope and the will to survive is enough. At the end when the author is talking to Lale and Gitas son, to hear how even as his parents lost everything, Gita would smile and song because they were together and that meant it would be ok. What a beautiful mindset to have. Sad but beautiful, how little anything worldly meant to her because she had lost everything important already once.I rated this 4 stars because it's a tragically beautiful love story. As I said it's not written in a traditionally great way. You wouldn't compare this to great authors and say that the authors writing was superb but the authors does tell a story, she does write in a way that gives you a small glimpse in to two peoples lives. For that I believe it's easily worth 4 stars.

Stunning,story of survival under the most unthinkable surcumstances. Well written,could not put story down until it's magical ending.The human spirit lights up the pages and I hope the movie does it justice.

Wow, just a very enlightening read into the horror of how the world was there, a must read for anyone interested in how life was in Auschwitz’s camps. Well written.

Very moving story. It showed the prisoners not just as numbers in a holocaust statistic, but their lives, the pain, suffiering and the indomitable will to survive.

Buen estilo que atrapa.

Good, but still reading

I received the book damaged with ink/ used, while I payed for a brand new book. Not happy

c'est un livre très intéressant