Book Club Extraordinaire
  • Home
    • BExtraordinaire Calendar
  • Blog BExtraordinaire
  • Past Reads
    • 2021 >
      • The Mysteries
      • The Long Petal of the Sea
      • The Silent Patient
      • The Broken Heart of America
      • The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
    • 2020 >
      • Where the Crawdads Sing
      • Death of a Red Heroine
      • Age of Light
      • Beneath the Scarlet Sky
      • Next Year in Havana
      • What the Wind Knows
      • Simon the Fiddler
      • The Dutch House
      • Dear Edward
    • 2019 >
      • Caleb's Crossing
    • 2018 >
      • Educated
      • To Have and To Have Not
    • 2017 >
      • A Gentleman in Moscow
    • 2016 >
      • The Mare
      • Fates and Furies
    • 2015 >
      • Citizens of London
      • Euphoria
      • The Blue Flower
      • Being Mortal
      • Waiting for Snow in Havana
      • All that is Solid Melts into Air
      • All the Light We Cannot See
    • 2014 >
      • On Such a Full Sea
      • A Canticle for Leibowitz
      • The Luminaries
      • The Lowland
      • Alice Munro shorts
      • The Goldfinch
      • The Round House
      • Salvage the Bones
    • 2013 >
      • The Monuments Men
      • Wild
      • The Great Fire
      • A Time of Gifts
      • Sweet Tooth
      • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
      • To the End of the Land
      • The Casual Vacancy
      • Canada
      • The Light Between Oceans
    • 2012 >
      • One Amazing Thing
      • Bossypants
      • The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
      • Rules of Civility
      • Cutting for Stone
      • Just Kids
      • Red Badge of Courage
      • Lost on Treasure Island
      • The Reluctant Fundamentalist
      • The Children's Book
    • 2011 >
      • The Cellist of Sarajevo
      • Food Rules
      • Freedom
      • Unbroken
      • The Painted Veil
      • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
      • Elegance of the Hedgehog
      • Soul Mountain
  • Highlights
    • The Complete List
  • ReaderRec

Blog Extraordinaire

Nightstand Reads

1/19/2020

0 Comments

 

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Picture
.​The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris is based on Lale Ludwig Eisenberg’s life story after being transported to Auschwitz on April 13, 1942. Auschwitz, the largest death camp operated by the Nazis during World War II. Over 1 million innocent men, women and children were put to death.

This powerful book was written by Heather Morris of New Zealand after meeting with Lale Sokolov, while she worked in a public hospital in Melbourne. Lale was finally ready to tell his story before he died and reunited with this beloved Gita who died three years before. 

People sent to Auschwitz were first divided into two groups: the people in the first group were deemed to weak, too young (most children), or too sick to work. They were immediately sent to the showers, which were actually gas chambers made to look like shower rooms.

The second group were made up of those deemed strong enough to work. Those were the prisoners who got numbers tattooed on their arms. The numbers were meant to dehumanize the prisoners- they would no longer be known by their names, simply their numbers. If you were in this group, you had some chance of survival.  A number didn't mean you would survive, but you might.


Numbers were given to only one group of prisoners- those who were deemed healthy and strong enough to work. Lale, as many Jews and people brought to concentration camps were put to work. He was assigned to work as the tattooist. His job was to permanently tattooed the identification numbers on the newly arrived prisoners deemed able to work to Auschwitz and Birkenau. He meets Gita when he must re-tattoo her arm. He falls in love with her and vows they will survive and one day walk out of here and marry.

This book is an important reminder for the world to remember those who were murdered, tortured and dehumanized and bore witness to the atrocities of the Holocaust  and the strength of love and the power of resilience to overcome and survive.

January 27, 2020 marks the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz/Birkenau. In the words of a survivor:
"It is important for everyone to remember what happened at Auschwitz-Birkenau because the number of survivors who can give their testimonies is dwindling, and such evil must never happen again," he added.
Mike Bornstein from Żarki was deported to Auschwitz in July 1944. He was in the camp until the day of liberation on January 27, 1945. "I spent most of my life trying to forget Auschwitz and all the reasons I have a tattoo on my arm. I like to focus on happier things -- I am blessed with a wonderful life now. But I was one of the youngest survivors, and that makes me one of the last survivors here now. I feel an obligation to be at the 75th anniversary, to stand up and say, 'I was there. I survived. We can't forget what happened at Auschwitz.' I also want to send a message. I think it's important to show the strength of the Jewish people and the power of optimism. I'll be standing in Auschwitz with one of my twelve grandkids. My life is good," he said.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Kathy Corey
    I'm an expert amateur or maybe an amateur expert.

    Archives

    May 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010

    LinkedinFacebookBlog RSSTwitter

    Email us
Tweets by @kathycorey

Categories

All
A.S. Byatt
Authors
Barbery
Bextraordinaire
Biography
Blogs
Book Club
Books
Bossypants
Byatt
China
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Elegance Of The Hedgehog
Fiction
Food Rules
Franzen
Freedom
Galloway
Gao
Hamid
Hillenbrand
Just Kids
Lacks
Maugham
Movies
Niffennegger
Nonfiction
Novel
Painted Veil
Patti Smith
Pollan
Quotes
Read
Rebecca Skloot
Red Badge Of Courage
Sankovitch
Skloot
Song Dynasty
Soul Mountain
Stephen Crane
The Cellist Of Sarajevo
The Children
The Children's Book
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
The Relucant Fundamentalist
The Time Traveler
Tolstoy And The Purple Chair
Unbroken
Video
World War Ii
Ww Ii
Zamperini

RSS Feed

View my profile on LinkedIn