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
At night, Cilka lies in bed with Schwarzhuber and she tries not to think or feel anything. When Lale goes to the administration building the next day to collect his assignments, he winks at Gita but he notices Cilka’s glum look and he thinks once again that he must find out what’s going on with her. In the meantime, though, Baretski takes Lale to work, where Lale sees an enclosed area of the compound’s yard. The area is full of naked women whom Mengele has selected, and the fences surrounding them are no longer electrified so that they can’t choose to kill themselves via electrocution. Ushered inside, Lale sets to work tattooing the women while Mengele inspects them, deciding which ones he wants to “keep.”
By taking away these prisoners’ ability to kill themselves, Mengele has effectively deprived them of their last form of free will. Uncertain what might happen to them, the prisoners are forced to await their fate without even the ability to decide for themselves when they die. Needless to say, this only heightens the sense of uncertainty in Lale’s life, as he tries to piece together what, exactly, Mengele will be doing to these prisoners. In this regard, it’s worth emphasizing that Josef Mengele was—as is the case with all the characters in The Tattooist of Auschwitz—a real person. During Mengele’s time as the doctor at Auschwitz-Birkenau, he carried out inhumane experiments of living subjects and he caused a staggering amount of pain and death.
Themes
At one point, Mengele appears next to Lale and, with his nauseating smile, says, “One day soon, Tätowierer, I will take you.” When Lale finally finishes, he stumbles outside to find that there are no more prisoners left in the yard. Thinking about what has become of all the women who were standing there just hours earlier, Lale falls to his knees and he dry heaves.
Although it’s obvious to Lale that Mengele is doing something wicked to the prisoners he selects, there is still no way for Lale to know what, exactly, is going on. All Lale knows is that whatever Mengele is doing is sinister and evil and that the doctor is subjecting a great many number of prisoners to his wrath.
Themes
In Gita’s block that night, she stumbles upon a new prisoner who recognizes her. Her name is Mrs. Goldstein, and she used to be Gita’s neighbor. Gita embraces Gita, overcome with emotion. Excitedly, Gita asks if her parents and sisters have come to the camp too, but Mrs. Goldstein informs her that they were taken by the Nazis months earlier. Gita’s brothers, Mrs. Goldstein explains, ran away to join resistance fighters. As for Gita’s parents and sisters, though, Mrs. Goldstein regrettably tells Gita that she heard they died in the camps. Hearing this, Gita slumps to the floor as Dana and Ivana rush over to her, weeping for her loss. Gita, for her part, feels a profound sense of “emptiness,” and though her friends encourage her to let out her sadness, she only sheds several tears, not wanting to give the Nazis more than just a few teardrops.
It has already become overwhelmingly obvious that uncertainty is one of the most emotionally torturous things about living in the concentration camps. In this case, however, uncertainty may have been helping Gita get by, allowing her to cling to the hope that her family members were all still alive. Now, though, she has to face the fact that her parents and sisters have been killed by the Nazis, and this dashes some of her hope. Nonetheless, she remains emotionally resilient, refusing to let herself show too much emotion because she doesn’t want to let the Nazis get the better of her. Although Gita has just received bad news, it’s clear that she isn’t going to let it completely demoralize her. In turn, she commits herself to survival.
Themes
So many new prisoners arrive in the coming weeks that Lale is unable to see Gita on Sundays. Knowing Gita will worry about him, Lale asks Baretski to pass her a note explaining that he’s fine, and Baretski offers to simply tell her himself. He also informs Lale during this conversation that the prisoners will receive extra food and blankets for several days because the Red Cross is coming to examine the conditions of the camps. Lale likes the sound of this, wondering if the rest of the world will finally start paying attention to what the Nazis are doing. However, as the days pass, Lale isn’t sure whether or not the Red Cross ever actually comes, though he does notice that some prisoners are given extra food for a short time.
The idea of the Red Cross visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau gives Lale a small amount of hope. Unfortunately, though, it soon becomes clear that this visit will do little to interfere with the Nazis’ plans, especially since the Nazis have apparently gone out of their way to make the conditions in the camps seem better than they actually are. In doing so, they effectively keep the outside world from seeing the truth, thereby making it easier for themselves to continue following their immoral agenda.
Themes
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At last, Lale finds a moment to intersect with Gita, pulling her to the side as she exits work one day. She tells him she was sure he’d died, revealing that Baretski never relayed his message. Kissing Gita, Lale says he has fallen in love with her, calling her beautiful and complimenting her beauty even though she can’t fathom how he could possibly see her as pretty in a time like this. Still, he insists that he loves her hair even when it’s shaved, saying he’ll also love however it looks in the future. Hearing this, Gita says that she and Lale don’t have a future, but he refutes this, claiming that they will survive the camps, live together, and lead a life in which they can kiss and have sex whenever they want. When Gita agrees to adopt this perspective, they kiss passionately before going their separate ways again.
Once more, readers see that despite the horrible conditions Lale and Gita are forced to endure, their love for each other endures. And though their relationship sometimes causes them to worry more than they would if they weren’t so concerned about each other, it also gives them something special to focus on—something that makes them want to believe in their own future and, therefore, their survival. In this regard, Lale and Gita’s love factors into their determination to make it out of Birkenau alive.
Themes
That evening, Dana and Ivana are happy to see that Gita is in a better mood, but they ask her why she hasn’t told Lale about the death of her family members. In response, Gita says that it’s too difficult to talk about such matters, adding that Lale was so glad to see her that she didn’t want to ruin the moment. Still, her friends insist that Lale would want to know since he loves her. Nonetheless, Gita decides to keep the death of her family a secret from Lale, wanting her relationship with him to remain a respite from the horror of her current reality. She then apologizes to her friends that she has an “escape” and they don’t, but they assure her that they’re just glad she’s able to find a small slice of happiness—this, they say, is good enough for them.
The fact that Gita’s friends are happy for her and Lale provides insight into the nature of companionship in Birkenau. Rather than envying Lale and Gita’s relationship, Dana and Ivana appreciate it, recognizing how special it is for their friend to have an “escape” from their otherwise dismal circumstances. In this way, they band together and try to support one another in whatever way they can, grasping how important it is to help one another through these difficult times. After all, this kind of connection is one of the only forms of resilience available to the prisoners, so they do what they can to support one another.
Themes
