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
Autumn turns to winter. It is now 1945, and Lale tells Gita what he has heard about the possibility of liberation at the hands of the Russians—news she relays to the women in her block. As time passes, fewer and fewer new prisoners come to the camp, leaving Lale with less work. In fact, everyone in the camp has less work, including the Sonderkommando, who feel threatened by this new development—without work, after all, the chances that they will be killed increases. What’s more, workers like Victor and Yuri have stopped coming, and large numbers of prisoners are transported out of the camps each day. In keeping with this, Baretski tells Lale one morning that Leon is “gone,” and when Lale asks what has happened, Baretski gives no extra information, simply telling Lale that he might soon find himself being shipped out of Birkenau, too.
By degrees, it becomes evident that the end of the Nazi reign is drawing near. Because Lale and his fellow prisoners don’t have access to news outlets or any other kind of media, this information trickles to them slowly and indirectly. Consequently, they are forced to draw conclusions from the changes they witness taking place all around them, realizing that something must be happening outside of Birkenau because everything seems to have ground to a halt. And though this is certainly a good thing, it also creates even more uncertainty about what is going to happen, especially since it’s unclear what the Nazis might do with the prisoners in a state of panic. In this sense, Leon’s disappearance is unsettling because it suggests that Lale and Gita could be separated from each other at any moment.
Themes
When Baretski tells Lale about Leon’s disappearance, it’s clear he doesn’t care what happened to the man. Angry, Lale says, “You see your world reflected in a mirror, but I have another mirror.” Baretski looks upset, but Lale continues, saying that when he looks into his own mirror, he sees a world that will topple Baretski’s. In response, Baretski asks if Lale thinks he’ll even live long enough to see this happen. Lale says he’s sure he’ll survive, at which point Baretski reminds Lale that he could kill him whenever he wants, putting his hand on his pistol. “You won’t do that,” Lale replies, to which Baretski suggests that he’s been outside in the cold for too long and he should go warm up. As Baretski walks away, Lale thinks about how he wouldn’t hesitate to kill the merciless Nazi if given the chance.
Yet again, Lale and Baretski have a confrontation in which Baretski threatens Lale but he holds back from actually harming him. By this point, Lale is rather certain that he’s safe from the evil wrath he knows Baretski is capable of demonstrating. However, this doesn’t mean that he likes the man. Although Lale has tried to be kind to Baretski and he’s offered him advice about his personal life, Lale doesn’t truly have any investment in the man’s wellbeing. Instead, Lale has focused on befriending Baretski as a means of ensuring his own safety—a strategy that has clearly worked, considering that Baretski is apparently hesitant to hurt Lale.
Themes
In January, Gita rushes to Lale and she tells him that the SS officers are acting oddly. Knowing there haven’t been any new prisoners for weeks, Lale goes to the administration building and he discovers utter mayhem as officers rush about destroying documents. As one administrative worker drops a handful of files at his feet, Lale stoops to help her, and she whispers that the Nazis are going to start emptying the camp the following day because the Russian Army is near. Lale then runs to Gita’s block and he tells everyone there what he’s heard. Before leaving, he tells Gita not to leave the block because the guards might be especially merciless. Turning to Dana, he thanks her for being a kind friend to Gita. He also tells Cilka that she’s the bravest person he knows. When he turns to Gita, though, she doesn’t let him say anything, insisting that she’ll see him tomorrow.
Lale’s privileges as the tattooist allow him to gain valuable information about what’s happening in Birkenau. Emboldened by the relative sense of protection that comes along with working as the tattooist, he’s able to go to the administration building to see why the guards are acting so strangely, and this ultimately helps him prepare for the camp to be emptied. At the same time, though, there’s really not much Lale can do to prepare except stay out of the way and tell Gita to do the same, knowing that the Nazis will most likely be particularly easy to upset during this period. On another note, the kind things Lale says to Dana and Cilka once again highlight the importance of friendship and communal support in the concentration camps, as he shows his appreciation for the way they’ve stuck by Gita and helped her stay strong.
Themes
In the middle of the night, Lale wakes to the sound of commotion outside. Running into the snow, he sees the Nazis organizing an extremely large group of female prisoners, forcing them into lines and marching them through the camp’s open gate. Searching the crowd, Lale spots Gita and he desperately tries to reach her, but it’s impossible for him to make his way through the chaotic crowd. Seeing him, Gita and Dana try to force their way backwards, but the momentum of the prisoners is too strong to fight, and an officer hits Lale with the butt of his rifle, preventing him from advancing. Lale screams Gita’s name, and just before she’s completely swept away, she says, “Furman. My name is Gita Furman!” Falling on his knees, Lale screams that he loves her but he doesn’t hear her reply.
One of the tensions that drives The Tattooist of Auschwitz is the fact that Gita refuses to tell Lale her last name, insisting that she’ll give him this information when they finally leave Birkenau. The danger of doing this, of course, is that it’s been an ongoing possibility that she could be taken away without telling Lale her last name, making it impossible for him to find her in the aftermath of the Holocaust. In this moment, though, Gita manages to tell Lale her last name at the very last possible moment, but this small piece of certainty likely does little to alleviate the more distressing fact that the Nazis have taken her away from Lale, thrusting them both into an unknown and unsettling future—a future in which it’s not clear whether or not they’ll ever be together again.
Themes
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When the female prisoners are gone, Lale remains in the snow on his knees. Before long, an SS officer walks by Lale and the officer tells him that he’s going to freeze to death if he doesn’t return to his block. Reaching down, he helps Lale to his feet—“an act of kindness from the enemy at the eleventh hour.” The following morning, Lale wakes to the sound of explosions. Outside, he sees frantic SS officers and prisoners running around with the camp’s gates standing open. Some prisoners rush through the gate and walk around, unsure of what to do. Meanwhile, a train idles nearby, and guards begin to collect prisoners and usher them onboard. Lale soon finds himself in a group of prisoners who are loaded onto the train, and as it begins to pull away, he watches as the SS start shooting the remaining prisoners.
Like Gita, Lale is swept away into an uncertain future, not knowing if the Nazis are going to kill him or simply transfer him to another camp. When an SS officer helps Lale to his feet, readers are presented with the notion that even the most morally corrupt people are capable of kindness—an idea that has interesting implications, since it suggests that, by contrast, moral people might also be capable of carrying out immoral actions. This, in turn, sheds light on the novel’s interest in moral relativism and the idea that sometimes it is necessary for good people to slightly alter their ethical considerations when operating in the midst of greater evils.
Themes
