Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Survival and Morality
Faith, Love, and Optimism
Unity, Sacrifice, and Empathy
Knowledge, Uncertainty, and Power
Summary
Analysis
While tattooing one day, Lale notices the officer in a white coat walking down the line of prisoners again. This time, he comes up to Lale and he stands beside him, inspecting Lale’s handiwork before moving on, whistling and smiling strangely as he goes. When the man out of earshot, Baretski tells Lale that this man is the camp’s new doctor, Herr Doktor Josef Mengele. He notes that Lale will want to avoid Mengele as much as possible, admitting that even he finds Mengele creepy. When Lale asks what Mengele is doing here, Baretski explains that the doctor will be at many of these “selections” because he is searching for a specific kind of patient. “I take it being sick is not a criterion for him,” Lale says, to which Baretski keels over with laughter.
Yet again, Baretski shows his willingness to confide in Lale, this time admitting that he finds Josef Mengele unsettling. In fact, he even gives Lale advice, warning him to stay away from Mengele. This suggests that Baretski cares enough about Lale to help him, even in this small way. However, he later laughs at the idea that Mengele would ever try to use his role as the camp’s doctor to cure sick prisoners. This reminds readers (and Lale) that Baretski is still quite heartless and unempathetic, despite the fact that he seemingly likes Lale. In turn, whatever favors he does for Lale feel especially significant, since he’s otherwise so unkind and brutal.
Themes
Later that day, Lale hears Mengele’s whistling again, and it frightens him so much that he presses the needle too hard into the arm of the prisoner he’s tattooing, causing her to yelp. As Lale quickly tries to clean the blood, he senses Mengele’s presence over his shoulder. Mengele asks Lale if there’s something wrong and if Lale is the Tätowierer. Stammering, Lale answers Mengele’s question. Mengele then stares at Lale with lifeless eyes and an odd, tight smile before walking away. That night, Lale is about to wash a bloodstain from his shirt when he decides to keep it as a reminder of how dangerous this doctor is, sensing that Mengele will cause unprecedented amounts of pain instead of healing people.
At this point in Lale’s stay at Birkenau, Mengele’s presence is still shrouded in mystery. All he knows is that Mengele is a doctor, but it seems rather obvious that Mengele has a sinister agenda—one that has nothing to do with healing sick prisoners. Worse, Mengele appears rather frequently to look for certain prisoners, meaning that Lale is often forced to work in the doctor’s presence. Given that Lale doesn’t know what, exactly, Mengele is doing to the prisoners he selects, this development only adds more uncertainty to Lale’s life, as he fears not only for the people around him, but also for himself, hoping all the while that Mengele won’t take him away.
Themes
The following day, Lale and Leon are tattooing women again when Lale notices Mengele inspecting the prisoners and shoving them either to the right or the left. What Mengele is looking for is unclear to Lale, who stares furiously at the twisted doctor until Mengele looks up and he notices Lale’s glare. Mengele calls an SS officer over, whispers in his ear, and then sends him to Lale. “What do you want?” Lale asks the officer, but the officer tells him to be quiet and addresses Leon, saying, “Leave your things and come with me.” When Lale objects and says that he needs Leon’s help in order to finish, the officer ignores him. Leon, for his part, nervously tells Lale to keep working, saying he’ll be fine as he’s taken away by the officer.
Mengele’s decision to take Leon is quite ominous, as it reminds Lale that he, too, is in danger of being taken away by the sinister doctor. Worse, though, it seems that Mengele decided to take Leon as a way of sending Lale a message in response to Lale staring at Mengele with such blatant contempt. In this way, Mengele intimidates Lale not by punishing him, but by punishing Lale’s friend, undoubtedly causing Lale to feel both frightened and guilty for having glared at the doctor in the first place. In this sense, Mengele seems to have intuited that one of the most effective ways of unsettling Lale is to persecute the people he cares about, since Lale devotes so much of himself to the task of helping others.
Themes
