The Tattooist of Auschwitz

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is Heather Morris's 2018 debut novel, based on the real experiences of Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jewish man deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942. Because he speaks several languages, Lale is given the grim task of tattooing identification numbers onto the arms of newly arrived prisoners. In the course of this work he meets Gita, a young woman he is ordered to mark, and the two fall in love, resolving to survive the camp and one day marry.

Set against the daily horrors of Auschwitz, the story turns on themes of love, survival, resilience, and human compassion in the face of atrocity. Using the small privileges his position affords, Lale trades jewels and valuables taken from murdered prisoners for food and medicine to help others stay alive. Morris drew the narrative from three years of interviews with Sokolov, whom she met in 2003 after the death of his wife Gita, and originally conceived the story as a screenplay before reshaping it into a novel.

The book became a #1 New York Times bestseller and an international phenomenon, selling millions of copies worldwide and drawing wide readership to Holocaust-era historical fiction. It launched a loosely connected trilogy continued in Cilka's Journey and Three Sisters, and was adapted into a television miniseries broadcast in 2024. While praised for popularizing a survivor's story, the novel has also been discussed for the liberties it takes with historical detail in service of its narrative.