The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

by Heather Morris

This is a story of a young boy separated from his family and thrown in a German concentration camp.  As soon as he arrives, he secretly promises to himself that he is not going to die in this place.  He faces hunger, death, deceit but, stays strong and lives.  There are just few things which act as ray of hope for him but he clings to them tightly throughout.  Lale is the Tatooist at Auschwitz, someone who takes people's identity from them and instead gives them numbers for life.  A mere young prisoner, by sheer luck and determination gets turned into the Tattooist. His desire to live and defeat death is what gets him through.

Among the many books I have read on Holocaust, this story is more about hope.  Hope that two individuals keep in their heart all along their three years at a concentration camp.  Hope is something which brings Lale to his love Gita together and they starts dreaming of a future.  This book on the one hand describes the atrocities that prisoners had to bear at the Nazi concentration camps and on the other, is full of the positive energies from both Lale and Gita.  How they are able to survive during and after war and make a small world for themselves in this big world?

I would have liked the story better if it had much more details and had it been more descriptive.  It seems at places a hasty story telling is being done and there is a rush by the author to reach the end.  I wish it was not such a short story.  Every stage seemed to end very quickly.  The story itself is responsible for all the acclaims to this book.

In the end I only have one thought for this book as well as for the said event in history - 

"How can a race spread out across multiple countries be considered a threat?  So much so that it is made a mission to be looted, killed and destroyed.

GoodReads Review:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3139400198

Overall Review: 4

Grip Factor:       3.5
Writing Style:    2.5
Engaging Plot:   4
Characters:         3.5
Satisfying end:   4