The bestselling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz by first-time author Heather Morris was released back in 2018 and has since gained significant popularity.
The novel’s success has even resulted in the decision to adapt the book into a six-part drama series.
WATCH: The Tattooist of Auschwitz first look trailer.
The novel tells the story of Slovakian Jew Lale Sokolov, who was a prisoner at Auschwitz in 1942. It covers Sokolov’s life as the man who tattooed prisoners’ arms in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during World War II and how he fell in love with a girl he was tattooing, Gita.
The gripping story told by the New Zealand author uncovers all the heartbreaking details of the unsettling experiences he endured. However, what’s more extraordinary about this story is that it’s mostly true…
Though the story told in The Tattooist of Auschwitz is classified as fiction, Morris has revealed that it is based on interviews she had with Lale Sokolov before he passed in 2006.
Lale Sokolov and his wife Gita Thurman were real people and their story is just as real, making it even more heartbreaking. The real-life Lale Sokolov was a tattooist at Auschwitz who met his wife Gita Furman while he was there. Lale and Gita later married and moved to Melbourne, where they raised their son together.
However, various elements of the story are not real and are instead included or changed for a more emotional response from the readers. Following the book’s release, the author received backlash from the Auschwitz Memorial regarding her documentation of the story.
“The book contains numerous errors and information inconsistent with the facts, as well as exaggerations, misinterpretations and understatement,” they said at the time.
Morris has previously claimed to The Guardian that “95 per cent of it is as it happened; researched and confirmed.”
“What has been fictionalised is where I’ve put Lale and Gita into events where really they weren’t. They weren’t together when the American planes flew over the camps, for example. Lale was on his own at that point. I put him and Gita together for dramatic licence,” she said.
Paweł Sawicki, editor-in-chief of Memoria, Auschwitz Memorial’s magazine, previously made claims that numerous historical details of the camp are wrong. According to Sawicki, one major detail that’s wrong is the camp number of Gisela Fuhrmannova, Sokolov’s wife, who also went by the name Gita Furman.
“We were really surprised to find out that the number given in the book is not correct. It is a very basic but a crucial detail in the story,” she told The Guardian.
“The number of different errors in the book can sometimes create more confusion than understanding.”
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum later came to the conclusion that “given the number of factual errors… this book cannot be recommended as a valuable title for persons who want to explore and understand the history of KL Auschwitz.” They described the novel as “an impression about Auschwitz inspired by authentic events, almost without any value as a document”.
As the discussion around the book’s documentation of the Holocaust continued, Morris made it clear that the book never claimed to be an official history.
“I have written a story of the Holocaust, not the story of the Holocaust. I have written Lale’s story,” Morris told the New York Times. “The book does not claim to be an academic historical piece of non-fiction, I’ll leave that to the academics and historians.”
Gary Sokolov, son of Lali and Gita Sokolov, spoke with TV Tonight, reflecting on seeing his parents’ story on screen.
“The respect that was given to my father and my mother and their story was beyond anything I could have imagined,” he said.
“I really hope the world feels the same way. It’s what I wanted for my parents: for the world to know their story.”
Want to read The Tattooist of Auschwitz?
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris is available online via Amazon. To purchase, click here.
The other books in the series are also available via Amazon.
