The Tattooist of Auschwitz recounts Lali Sokolov’s harrowing memories of the concentration camp in Poland during the Second World War.
Based on the book of the same name, the six-part series follows Lali Sokolov (Harvey Keitel) as he tells his story of his time at Auschwitz to novice writer Heather Morris (Melanie Lynskey) who is writing his memoirs.
The show jumps between this timeline and his experience at the concentration camp, where a young Lali (Jonah Hauer-King) takes up the job of tattooing identification numbers on the arms of fellow Jewish prisoners.
It’s during this job where he meets young Gita (Anna Prochniak), who he quickly falls in love with – putting themselves both at risk.
What happens at the end of The Tattooist Of Auschwitz?
At the end of the sixth episode, Lali returns to Auschwitz with Heather for the first time since he was held captive there. During the visit, Lali sees one final vision of Gita, who died in 2003, sitting on their bed and holding their baby son Gary.
In the final sequence, Lali approaches Gita with a smile on his face and lays next to her on the bed. While this could be interpreted in several ways, it predominantly suggests that, after telling his story to Heather, Lali can now finally be at peace with his past.
The final card on the screen shows that Lali died “peacefully” on October 31, 2006. 11 years later, Heather published Lali’s story in 2018’s The Tattooist Of Auschwitz.
How historically accurate is The Tattooist Of Auschwitz?
Following the book’s publication, author Heather Morris told the Guardian 95 per cent of it is “as it happened; researched and confirmed” – with only some “dramatic licence” made in terms of placing Lali and Gita “into events where really they weren’t”.
This claim, however, has been disputed by the Auschwitz Memorial Research Centre, who criticised the book for presenting itself as being historically accurate and, in a report, highlighted various mistakes – including the number given to Gita at the camp.
Due to the number of factual errors "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" cannot be recommended as a valuable position for those who wish to understand the history of the camp. The book is an impression about Auschwitz inspired by authentic events, almost without any value as a document. https://t.co/n5qGJa7tLE
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) December 2, 2018
In conclusion, the Auschwitz memorial ruled: “Due to the number of factual errors The Tattooist Of Auschwitz cannot be recommended as a valuable position for those who wish to understand the history of the camp. The book is an impression about Auschwitz inspired by authentic events, almost without any value as a document.”
The inaccuracies in the book are somewhat addressed in the TV adaptation, as we see Lali Sokolov wrestle with his own suppressed memories, while visions of characters like Nazi guard Stefan Baretzki confront him about his alterations to the truth.
The Tattooist Of Auschwitz is available to stream on Sky Atlantic.
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