There’s something that I wanted to get off of my chest before I start talking about the book for this week’s blog. Recently, the second season of Bridgerton dropped and yes, of course, I binged it within the first two days of it showing up on Netflix. With that being said, I was HIGHLY disappointed in the second season. After reading the book, there was no way that I could enjoy this new season because it was almost completely different from the book. To say I was disappointed is an understatement…I still have faith though! I’m a die-hard Bridgerton fan and I am extremely hopeful that the third season will follow the book’s plotline because the books are PHENOMENAL. Anyways, to get back to my blog, I wanted to warn you that this one is going to be a little bit different than what I typically write about. Is it still a romance novel? There’s a sprinkle of that but the main genre is historical fiction that is based on one of the darkest times of human history; the holocaust. Many people in Ukraine are currently living through a similar type of hell and I wanted to address this because it is barbaric and hits a little too close to home. The way Russia attacked Ukraine and the types of war crimes they are committing in Ukraine right now are frighteningly similar to what Hitler did to Poland (my family’s home country) and MANY other countries/people during World War II. If you are not up-to-date on what is currently happening in Ukraine and you don’t know much about World War II, you need to educate yourself and not just turn a blind eye to it. Now, on to my blog.
As I mentioned earlier, this week’s blog is going to be heavier than the other blogs I have written because I am going to be talking about Tatuażysta Z Auschwitz or The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. The reason I included the polish title is that I am currently reading this novel in polish and it takes place during World War II in Poland. For those of you who don’t know this bit of information “Auschwitz” or “Oświęcim” is a town located in the southern part of Poland near the cities of Katowice and Kraków. The Nazis named the camp after the town where it is located and because of that, there are some people to this day that believe Poland was responsible for building this slaughterhouse and committing those terrible, inhumane acts. One of the worst people at the camp was Dr. Josef Mengele, also known as “the Angel of Death”. He was the camp’s doctor but instead of saving people’s lives, he experimented on the prisoners (specifically twins) and would inject God-knows-what into their bodies to try and create the perfect Aryan race. All of these things (and more) are brought up in this novel that is based on the true story of Lale Sokolov and Gisela (Gita) Fuhrmannova.
The story beings in April of 1942. Lale is in the container on the train headed towards Auschwitz. He’s describing the scene; slits that are used as “windows”, people pressed up right next to each other to the point where you can’t even lift your arm, the smell of human excrements, and people passing out from hunger or thirst or even dying before they get to the camp. While he’s on the train, he reminisces about how he got there. Lale lived in Krompachy the German Nazis made an announcement saying that each Jewish family had to send one adult child to go to work for the Germans. Lale’s older brother, Maks, chose to go but because Maks already had a wife and two children, Lale told him to forget about it and he took his place (not knowing where he was being sent). He packed all of the necessities, clothes, money, books, etc., and was excited to be able to use all of his knowledge for a new job but once the train stops and he gets off, he was told to leave his belongings on the ground. He and the rest of the people that were on the train are then welcomed to Auschwitz and are told that their “work will set them free”. They are given a quick introduction and then told to go take a shower. All of the men, including Lale, are huddled into a small area and told to strip naked. They take a shower all together under ice-cold water, change into their striped clothing, and are then told that they are going to get a haircut. After they get a haircut, they each get tattooed with a number; Lale’s is 32407. The SS men then take them to Block number 7 which will be their new home and on the next day, they start working. Shortly after, Lale gets sick and is placed on a cart with dead bodies because the German officer there decides that he’s basically dead. Lale’s friend Aron pleads with the officer to take him off of that and to let him nurse Lale back to health. Pepan, the tattooist at that time, notices this happening and helps Aron get Lale to nurse him. Pepan and Lale become friends and when the officers tell Pepan to find another tattooist because there is a lot of work, Pepan chooses Lale. Shortly after this happens, Pepan disappears (is killed) and Lale becomes the sole tattooist. Since his job is more respected amongst the officers, Lale gets an extra meal a day, his own tiny block to live in, and a suitcase with all of his supplies. At the end of the day, Lale is required to also bring a list of all the people he tattooed in a day. One day he is sent to Birkenau (the camp adjacent to Auschwitz) and is told that he will be tattooing a new “shipment” of female prisoners. He is heartbroken by this because he didn’t know that women were also being sent to do hard labor and when he is about to tattoo the first prisoner, he gets choked up because he looks into her eyes and sees how terrified she is. He also notices how beautiful she is and knows that he has to see her again. Lale ends up finding her and learns that her name is Gita. They quickly befriend each other and he promises to take care of her by bringing her food and helping her as much as he can. He strikes up a deal with some polish people that come into the camp to work (for actual money, they aren’t prisoners) and they agree to help him by bringing food and medicine in exchange for gold and other valuables that Lale gets from Gita who worked in collections (“Collections” – for lack of a better term – was a job where, primarily women because it wasn’t an as strenuous job, sorted through all of the artifacts that prisoners brought in – mainly gold and any valuables). Lale then gives some of that food to Gita and her friends as well as his old block-mates. Further on into the story, Lale gets Gita a job working in the office doing secretarial work. He’s able to do this because, for some reason, one of the officers (he was called by his last name Baretzki) takes a liking to Lale and wants to see Lale and Gita’s romance blossom (Baretzki was also sick to the head as the rest of the officers there and saw this as some sort of game). Eventually, Lale and Gita do end up proclaiming that they love each other and plan their lives a little bit if they ever got out.
This novel brings up A LOT of psychological aspects that I can rant about, but the main one I want to talk about (and what many researchers have discussed) is the situational pressure people faced during WWII and their personal dispositions. Lots of research has talked about situational pressure that may have caused Nazis to act in the horrific way that they did. Situational pressure is defined as the psychological pressure that causes an individual to act or not act a certain way. It also mentions that this is tied in with that person’s personal dispositions. A way to look at this in somewhat easier terms is to look at two of the most famous research studies conducted, the Milgram experiment and the Stanford Prisons experiment. In the Milgram experiment, male volunteers were assigned to, what they believed, were two different roles, a “learner” or a “teacher”. What they didn’t know was that they were all assigned as “teachers” and that the “learners” were paid actors who were not volunteers. They were then placed in separate rooms so the “teachers” couldn’t see the “learners” and were instructed by the “experimenter” (who was in charge of the sessions) to conduct shocks to the “learner” if they got the question wrong. The “teachers” were aware that each shock would get more dangerous and higher in voltage and that they could kill them at a certain shock. Each time the “learner” was shocked, they would say “ow, that hurts” or, if the shock got strong enough, would wail in pain. The study found that although many of the teachers were extremely reluctant to give out shocks after a certain voltage, they still continued to do it because they were listening to an authoritative figure (experimenter). This was shocking because those people were just random, normal people who had their personal dispositions, but weren’t necessarily violent. They were simply listening to a person in power.
Another study that further expands on the idea that people react differently due to situational pressures is the Stanford Prison Study. In this study, volunteers (male college students) applied to this experiment and were interviewed and screened for any mental health issues, etc. Of the applicants, only 24 students were chosen to be part of this experiment (that was paid). They were aware that they would be assigned to either “prisoner” or “guard” and that they had to play those roles (there were certain lines the guards, for example, couldn’t cross). The “prisoners” were arrested by actual police officers and went through the process they would go through if they were truly arrested. They were forced to strip naked, wear smocks without underclothes, have a chain around their foot, etc. all to feel humiliated and dehumanized. They were also assigned an ID number and were referred to as that number. Once the “prisoners” and the “guards” were wearing their uniforms, their behavior changed almost instantly. The “guards” became more aggressive and violent and the “prisoners” became more passive and scared. Keep in mind, that these were also regular people who were playing the roles they were assigned without being given many rules to follow. A lot of what the “guards” were doing in terms of punishments is what actual prison guards use to break up prisoner alliances and demoralize them. Another punishment that is worth noting is that the “guards” would make the “prisoners” do pushups if they didn’t follow the rules. This is worth mentioning because Nazis would do the same to the prisoners in the concentration camps sometimes even stepping on their backs to keep them from getting back up so that they could beat them for no reason. These two studies and more show that when under situations/circumstances like these, normal people can do horrible things. That doesn’t mean that what happened in Auschwitz (or during World War II in general) was right because even though the Nazis were in a horrible situation, they still had the ability to make a choice.
Since this book is based on a true story, I know how the story ended even though I didn’t finish the novel yet. Lale and Gita do manage to live long enough to be liberated from the camp. After they were liberated, they got married in 1945 and ended up having one son. Gita passed away in 2003 and Lale passed away on October 31st, 2006 at 90-years old. This novel is not a completely accurate representation of what actually happened and some of the scenes were dramatized but it was written to tell Lale’s story.
-Sylvia Szewczyk, Blogger.
Sylvia Szewczyk – Asst Blog Editor: Sylvia graduated in May of 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Resource Management and Psychology, as well as with a minor in Polish Language and Culture. While at Lewis, Sylvia was a Community Engaged Learning Facilitator, a founder for Lewis’s Habitat for Humanity Chapter, as well as a LUMINATE Volunteer leader. She currently works full-time as an HR Generalist and joined Jet Fuel Review in hopes of following one of her lifelong passions – writing. Her favorite genres to read are historical fiction, sci-fi, and mystery. In her free time, she likes to paint, do puzzles, play the piano, read, rock climb, and hike. She loves to travel and does it
spontaneously, but wishes she could do it more often. After getting her Master’s, she plans on moving to Poland for a few years to experience work and life there.