A young man is taken from his home and sent to a ‘work camp’, his crime? Being Jewish. His advantage? His luck and optimism. Despite everything, Lale became the Tattooist of Auschwitz a secret he would hold for the majority of his life. Despite the horrors he saw and the job that he was forced to do, he happened to meet the love of his life, this is their story.

When I received an email asking if I would be interested in reading this I jumped at the chance. There are so many stories from the Holocaust that haven’t been told and millions more that never will, I was intrigued when I found out that it was prisoners that were to tattoo and mark other prisoners. This brought a whole new level of pain and suffering, marking their fellow prisoners, doing the Nazi’s dirty work for them.

What I didn’t expect when reading, was how much I would love Lale and that in all this, he was able to keep kindness and love in his heart. While his job was horrific and something he later felt he had to hide for fear of blame, he was able to find kindness and create a kind of family within the camp.

The story broke my heart over and over, but also gave me hope. Out of something so awful, the love between Lale and Gita was born and managed to withstand and survive. It’s something you need to read to believe because the tale is like something out of a movie.

Of course, I gave this 5 stars. It is beautifully written and tells an incredible story that needed to be told. There are rave reviews online and they are well deserved, I cannot recommend it enough.

Thank you to the Publisher for sending me this!