![Umschlagbild für The tattooist of Auschwitz [Audiobook]](https://secure.syndetics.com/index.aspx?type=xw12&client=charlottecofl&upc=&oclc=&isbn=9781982554699&issn=/LC.JPG "Umschlagbild für The tattooist of Auschwitz [Audiobook]")
Verfügbar:*
Status | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Suche... Punta Gorda | Audiobooks | HISTORICAL FIC MORRIS CD | Suche... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
Bestellt.
Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the true story of Lale and Gita Sokolov, two Slovakian Jews, who survived Auschwitz and eventually made their home in Australia. In that terrible place, Lale was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival-literally scratching numbers into his fellow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust. Lale used the infinitesimal freedom of movement that this position awarded him to exchange jewels and money taken from murdered Jews for food to keep others alive. If he had been caught he would have been killed; many owed him their survival.
There have been many books about the Holocaust-and there will be many more. What makes this one so memorable is Lale Sokolov's incredible zest for life. He understood exactly what was in store for him and his fellow prisoners and he was determined to survive-not just to survive, but to leave the camp with his dignity and integrity intact, to live his life to the full. Terrible though this story is, it is also a story of hope and of courage. It is also-almost unbelievably-a love story.
Waiting in line to be tattooed, terrified and shaking, was a young girl. For Lale-a dandy, a jack-the-lad, a bit of a chancer-it was love at first sight, and he determined not only to survive himself but to ensure that Gita did, too. His story-their story-will make you weep, but you will also find it uplifting. It shows the very best of humanity in the very worst of circumstances.
Like many survivors, Lale and Gita told few people their story after the war. They eventually made their way to Australia, where they raised a son and had a successful life. But when Gita died, Lale felt he could no longer carry the burden of their past alone. He chose to tell his story.
Rezensionen (3)
Bookseller Publisher Review
This novel is based on an incredible true story of resilience, loss and survival-the result of years of interviews between Heather Morris and Holocaust survivor Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov. The Tattooist of Auschwitz is the story of the charming, dapper and Jewish Lale, who survives at Auschwitz by becoming the tattooist-tetovierer-and permanently marking his fellow prisoners with their numbers. One day, as he is inking 34902 onto a young woman's arm, he looks up and falls in love with her. It is his determination to live a life beyond the concentration camps with this young woman, Gita, that sustains him through many horrific years. Though Lale's survival and his enduring love for Gita is a triumphant and incredible tale, this novelised version-through no fault of Lale's-falls somewhat flat. The prose is unimaginative and hardly transporting for the reader, and it lacks depth. Morris shares details about the historical research and interview scene-setting at the end, and they raise some fascinating questions about survivor guilt and complicity, but these issues are not interrogated in a meaningful way. The Tattooist of Auschwitz could have been better told, but it is a tale of love and triumph over the most hideous of circumstances that will appeal to readers of historical fiction and inspiring true stories. Portia Lindsay is the general manager of the Mudgee Readers' Festival
Guardian Review
Based on a real-life story, this bestselling debut novel glosses over the horrors of the concentration camps with sugary romance One of 2018's biggest sellers, this debut novel by Australian Heather Morris is based on three years of conversations with Lale Sokolov, an Auschwitz survivor, before his death in 2006. Lale, a Slovakian Jew, was imprisoned in 1942 and given the task of tattooing ID numbers on new arrivals. He later emigrated to Australia and only told his story after his wife's death, having always feared being seen as a collaborator. The narrative Morris put together was originally written as a screenplay and retains the present-tense simplicity of that form: Lale uses his wits to help his fellow prisoners and falls in love with one of them, his wife-to-be Gita. While one may rejoice that love flourished even in the darkest pit of humanity, I felt uneasy at an apparent glossing over of the concentration camps' unremitting misery with sugary romance. The choice to tell Lale's story as fiction distances the reader from the terrible reality and makes it difficult to judge what really happened at the level of human interactions. A non-fiction account might have been a better option, though perhaps less beguiling to readers. - Jane Housham.
New York Review of Books-Rezension
LISTENING TO this novel on my iPhone during the past week - while clutching a subway strap, trotting on a treadmill, filling my basket at Trader Joe's, biking down Amsterdam Avenue, walking my dog around the Harlem Meer - I began to notice how many other people in the city wear headphones as they go about their daily lives. Having recently moved back into New York City from the suburbs, where I mostly listened to audiobooks in my car, I was struck by how different it is listening to a book on headphones while doing other things. On the one hand it's a peculiarly intimate experience; the narrator speaks directly into your ear, as if to you alone. On the other hand, it can be hard to concentrate on the story, particularly if it's nonlinear or experimental. "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" is neither of these. If I hadn't read that Heather Morris originally wrote this novel as a screenplay, I might've guessed: The story clips along without extraneous exposition, and the dialogue is snappy and convincing. As a reader, I'm usually drawn to dense wordplay and complicated perspectives. But as a multitasking listener, I found the straightforward, chronological narrative easy and pleasurable to follow. Based on the author's interviews with a Jewish Holocaust survivor, "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" is the story of Lale Sokolov, Prisoner 32407, who was transported from Slovakia to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Birkenau, Poland, in 1942 and assigned the task of tattooing numbers on his fellow prisoners' arms. As a Tätowierer, Lale was in a privileged but morally compromised position, "performing an act of defilement on people of his own faith," as the narrator notes. Unlike most prisoners, Lale had agency. He was given his own room, fed extra rations and allowed freedoms most prisoners were denied, like traversing the camp alone and visiting both male and female barracks. In Morris's telling, Lale is shrewd, charming and self-aware. The moment he enters the gates, he vows he will leave the camp alive; he notes the Nazis' habits and routines, looking for any signs of weakness. He speaks seven languages: French, Russian, German, Slovak, Yiddish, Hungarian and Polish. This ability is his superpower. Toggling among languages, he serves as a guide, spy and interpreter. He knows what the guards are saying when they don't realize he's listening; he speaks Yiddish when he doesn't want them to understand. He mediates disputes and serves as a translator. Eventually he takes risks to save the lives of other prisoners. The audio version of this book is a particularly strong marriage of narrator and material. The British actor Richard Armitage uses an impressive variety of actorly tools as he shifts perspective from Lale to Gita, the Slovakian prisoner Lale falls in love with; Baretski, Lale's commander; a few other prisoners; and some SS officers, including real-life figures like Rudolf Hess and the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Armitage wrings every ounce of feeling, drama and even humor - mostly at the expense of the dimwitted Baretski - from this earnest story. He skillfully conveys the cruel, mocking tone that the SS officers and guards often used with prisoners as a way of reinforcing their power. Even when he isn't portraying a specific character, Armitage keeps the listener engaged and alert by modulating his tone, sometimes within individual sentences. At times it seems as if there are two narrators, so often, and ably, does Armitage vary his delivery. The relationship between Lale and Gita, with its progression from love at first sight to giddy infatuation to deep commitment, sometimes strains credulity. It's hard to imagine that malnourished prisoners with lesions and shaved heads might have had the autonomy, impulse and ability to carry on a torrid love affair. Apparently, they did - in real life, Lale and Gita ended up together. But the language of romance can seem jarringly out of place when contrasted with the starvation, mutilation and murder of thousands around them. The author heads off this criticism by having the characters raise this question themselves. "Is it wrong of me to want to escape reality for a bit?" Gita asks her friends. No, it isn't. And to be fair, Morris works hard to convey the devastating reality of daily life in a concentration camp. Her compassion for her characters, combined with Armitage's riveting delivery, makes this an immensely satisfying book to listen to, whatever else you might happen to be doing. CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE is the author, most recently, of the novel "A Piece of the World."
