Based on a true story, The Tattooist of Auschwitz takes place during WWII at a concentration camp. The tattooist, Lale, is captured at the beginning of the war.
Lale works his way into a higher position of the tattooist because of his charm, kindness, and obedience. With the higher position, he gets extra rations (food) and his own room. He’s able to sneak his extra rations to other prisoners in the compound. Lale even traded jewels, found and collected from clothes the Jews had to turn in, for extra food from civilians workers who working near the camp.
Lale often feels guilty for the privileges he has with his position, such as having an in with his (German) boss, slightly more “freedom,” and extra food. So, he does as best as he can to get people out of bad positions. If they are too frail for labor, he finds a way to have them put in an office-like space. Lale trades and shares what he can.
There is a sweet love story between Lale and girl he meets in the camp, Gita. Though, I do have to say that characters were very surface level. No one really has much of a personality aside from Lale.
Also, this story is not very heavy or gruesome compared some reads such as Night. It is a super fast read, I read in just 2 days. If you enjoy novels about WWII, check out All The Light We Cannot See.
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