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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
Lale sets to work tattooing fellow prisoners, inking identification numbers onto their forearms. As he presses the wooden needle into a woman’s arm, he notices that she doesn’t even flinch. This, he knows, is because she’s learned not to react. Beside Lale, his mentor, Pepan, tells him to hurry. Looking down the line of prisoners, though, Lale sees an officer in a white coat walking toward him, inspecting prisoners as he goes. When the man reaches the woman Lale is tattooing, he takes her face in his hands and he turns it about. Lale senses that the woman is about to say something to this mysterious officer, so Lale squeezes her arm and he nonverbally communicates that she should keep quiet. Heeding his advice, the woman says nothing, and the officer eventually moves on.
This early snapshot of Lale’s job as the tattooist of Auschwitz cues readers into the complexity of his role. Although Morris hasn’t yet clarified the circumstances surrounding Lale’s position, the scene—in combination with the novel’s title—makes clear that Lale inks identification numbers onto prisoners at Auschwitz, a concentration camp widely considered the worst and most deadly in the entire Holocaust. As the tattooist, Lale is forced to scar his fellow prisoners against their will, but it becomes evident in this scene that he also finds himself in a unique position to help them. For instance, when the officer in the white coat inspects the woman getting a tattoo, Lale secretly warns her against saying anything, thereby saving her from further scrutiny. In this way, Morris intimates that, though Lale does the Nazis’ bidding as the tattooist, this means that he’s often able to help others—an indication that morality isn’t all that straightforward in the twisted world of the concentration camps.
Themes
“Well done,” Lale whispers to the woman, putting the finishing touches on her number: 4562. He looks up into the woman’s eyes and he gives her a faint smile, which she returns. Seeing this, Lale suddenly feels as if his heart is going to explode so he looks away. When he turns back again, the woman is gone.
Lale’s rush of feeling for this woman is worth noting because it suggests that, although Lale is trying desperately to survive harrowing circumstances, he’s still capable of experiencing positive emotions. To that end, his attraction to prisoner 4562 implies that he is the kind of person who invests himself in love and hope even in the face of extreme adversity—a mentality that just might contribute to his ability to withstand otherwise unbearable conditions.
Themes
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