British drama《The Tattooist of Auschwitz》Introduction to the prototype of the true story

The recent hit - The Tattooist of Auschwitz - has become a hot topic of people's attention. In order to better let the audience understand the plot, we have specially compiled some stories about the British drama - Auschwitz.Tattoo Artist--Some content introduced by the real story prototype is for your reference.

The historical prototype of the British drama - The Tattooist of Auschwitz is: Lale Sokolov.

On February 21, 2004, in Melbourne, Australia, an old man was being interviewed. He sorted out his emotions and began to say the following to the camera: My name is Lale Sokolov, my name at birth was Ludwig Eisenberg, and I was an Oskar.The tattoo artists at Weising concentration camp were the ones who tattooed the prisoners’ serial numbers on their bodies...“

He paused and continued,” One day, I met a female prisoner named Gita...“

”I tattooed her number on her left arm...“

”She tattooed this number on my heart...until now...“!

After saying this, the old man's voice began to choke and tears fell from his cheeks...

This old man named Lale Sokolov was a tattoo artist in Auschwitz concentration camp.

The female prisoner Gita, who had her number tattooed on his heart, was his wife who had been with him for more than half a century...

The secret love story of a concentration camp tattoo artist begins more than 70 years ago...

In April 1942, 26-year-old Lale, together with many Jewish compatriots, were packed into a train like animals and escorted to Auschwitz - the most horrific and notorious concentration camp in Europe...

At that time, he had no idea what kind of horrific scenes were waiting for him in this concentration camp in southwestern Poland...

After arriving at the concentration camp, the Nazi officer replaced Lale's name with a cold number: 32407...

This number was tattooed on his left arm and became a mark that would accompany him throughout his life...

There are only two types of prisoners in Auschwitz: those with labor value and those without labor value...

Those with valuable labor force are assigned to do various manual jobs, and they can temporarily save their lives and survive...

Those with no labor value will be sent directly to various ”medical rooms“ in the concentration camp《that is, ”gas chambers“》and will be eliminated directly... Only personal belongings will be searched and retained...

The young and strong Lale became a labor force and was assigned to the construction site to build expanded barracks...

Unexpectedly, Lale soon distinguished himself in the concentration camp with his unparalleled language talent.

Because I know six languages ​​- Slovak, German, Russian, French, Hungarian, and a little Polish...

He was entrusted with important tasks and promoted to be the chief tattooist of Auschwitz...

Together with other tattoo artists, he began to tattoo numbers on tens of thousands of prisoners. These numbers became the most distinctive symbols and the most vivid evidence of the Holocaust...

Only the three concentration camps of Auschwitz, Birkenau and Monowitz tattooed prisoners with numbers to facilitate identification and management...

Because of the special needs of these three concentration camps, Lale and his colleagues had positions that saved their lives...

However, as a Jew, Lale did not intend to be a deferential collaborator from the beginning...

In the concentration camps, many Jews who were selected to serve the Nazis tried their best to please the Nazi officers in order to save their lives, and sometimes treated their own compatriots even more cruelly than the Nazis...

Although Lale tried his best to survive, he never participated in the atrocities that killed his compatriots...

Recalling the feeling of tattooing the prisoners, Lale described:

”It is a series of humiliation followed by humiliation, and the inhumanity begins from the moment the prisoners arrive at the concentration camp...“

”First of all, it is physical and mental pain, and secondly, we begin to understand that we have lost our names. From the names we were given at birth, we have turned into cold numbers...In their eyes, we are just livestock waiting to be slaughtered...“

Compared to other prisoners in the concentration camp, Lale was indeed farther away from death...

He has extra rations, lives in a single cell, and sometimes has free rest time after the tattoo work is completed... But this does not mean that Lale can escape the threat of death...

There was an officer named Josef Mengele in the concentration camp. His special hobby was to select ”patients“ from the newly arrived prisoners to receive ”treatment% in the gas chamber...

(On the far left is Mengele)

From time to time, he would run over to where Lale was working, stare at him intently, and say in a calm and frightening tone:

“One day, Mr. Tattooist, I will send you to receive treatment... There will be such a day... ”

Whenever he hears such words, Lale feels a chill running down his spine...

He knew clearly that Mengele was just one of the many officers who took pleasure in the lives of prisoners. Maybe one day a Nazi officer got drunk, and Lale would be shot inexplicably...

Just like this, after three months of trembling in Auschwitz, Lale concentrated on doing his job and was always vigilant to keep a low profile...

After spending a safe day, he would lie on his little bed and keep being grateful. This meant that he would still have a chance to see the sun tomorrow... For him at this moment, being alive was the greatest happiness...

Who would have thought that the darkest hell can also meet the most beautiful angel...

In July 1942, Lale checked the list of tattoo numbers issued as usual...

There is a number on it: 34902…

The prisoner who needed to be tattooed with this number came over. She was a female prisoner...

The female prisoner looked haggard, but her eyes were extremely bright... When she stretched out her arm to receive the tattoo, Lale suddenly felt her heartbeat speed up...

At that moment, the fear around me seemed to have disappeared. The SS, Nazi guards, endless killing...

He was stunned on the spot until his colleagues nervously reminded him to work quickly. If the guards found him, he would die!“, he calmed down and started tattooing the female prisoner...

He carefully carved this number on her left arm: 34902, and at the same time he also carved this number in his heart... 34902, 34902...

This five-digit number suddenly became cute... It seemed to represent something that could be called ”love%... This number became a huge motivation for him to survive in this hellish place...

34902, who is she?I must find her...

With the convenience of his position, Lale quickly found out the name of female prisoner No. 34902, Gita Fuhrmannova, a Czechoslovakian... who was imprisoned in the female prison camp at the other end of the concentration camp...

Relying on the good popularity he had accumulated from being a low-key person for several months, Lale first got rid of his SS guard and asked him to help him secretly carry a letter to Gita in the female prisoner barracks...

In the letter, Lale poured out his endless love and longing for Gita...

He also tried his best to take care of Gita, secretly gave her extra food rations, and tried to find ways to get her to a better workplace. He wanted her to know that he loved her and that she was the motivation for him to live...

However, at that time, Gita did not have any hope for the future...

She wrote in reply that everyone in the concentration camp was unable to fly. As a tattoo artist, Lale was just a little better than them. He also didn’t know if he would be alive tomorrow. There was no hope of getting out alive, so how could he talk about love...

Lale couldn't sleep all night after receiving the reply. He knew that he had completely fallen in love with Gita, but what should he do to make Gita believe that he could give her a future?Give her hope?He tossed and turned and finally made a decision...

No matter who it is in this concentration camp, as long as I can save one more person, I can give Gita more hope...

The more compatriots I save, the closer Gita’s heart will be to me...

The people in Auschwitz saw hope, and their loved ones will naturally see hope too!Lale began to take action. From then on, the object of his efforts to save was no longer Gita, but all the Jewish compatriots in the Auschwitz concentration camp... In the concentration camp, food was the currency in circulation, and Lale used his extra rations., and distributed it to his former roommates... He secretly took the jewelry hidden by the prisoners and asked the SS guards to take them out, exchanged it with the villagers near the concentration camp for more food and cloth, and subsidized the female prisoners on the Gita side.We... Lale's actions moved Gita extremely. Her despairing heart began to spark hope. She was moved by Lale's courage and gradually fell in love with this brave young man...

A secret love is growing quietly in this hellish place, but I don't know if it will blossom and bear fruit...

Three years later, the situation of World War II changed drastically. The Allies shifted from defense to offense, and the Soviet Red Army suddenly came to the city...

In 1945, the Nazi leaders decided to transfer the prisoners from Auschwitz before the arrival of the Soviet Red Army... and among the list of transferred persons, Gita's number 34902 was clearly listed.Gita was put on a transfer train and left Auschwitz, without any news...

For Lale, it was not easy to find Gita. He only knew that Gita's full name was Gita Fuhrmannova and that she was from Czechoslovakia, but he did not know where her hometown was...

Gita has left, but Lale continues to stay here. He is still living a precarious life...

The darkness before dawn was long, but the moment of dawn was extremely swift... Auschwitz concentration camp was quickly captured by the Soviet Red Army. Lale and other prisoners were rescued and released. He returned with the jewelry he had stolen from the Nazi officers.My hometown in Czechoslovakia, fortunately, my home is still there, and so are some of my relatives...

But where is Gita?Where did she go after being transferred out of Auschwitz?Is she still alive now?Lale was troubled by a series of questions.Without thinking about it, he immediately packed his bags and went directly to Bratislava, because this city was the only place for Holocaust survivors to return to Czechoslovakia...

Lale searched for Gita everywhere at the train station. He asked everyone he met if anyone knew a girl named Gita Fuhrmannova... In this way, Lale stayed at the train station for several weeks, but there was still no news about Gita.The staff at the train station platform couldn't stand it anymore and suggested that he go to the Red Cross to try his luck, so he left without looking back.

Back at the hotel where he was staying, Lale thought for a long time and decided to go to the Red Cross to inquire... Early the next morning, he dressed up and went out.The moment he walked out of the hotel door, a lady walked in from the street not far away. Her bright eyes immediately attracted him... Three years later, he will never forget those eyes, which saved him from despair.The moving eyes of salvation from the abyss...are Gita!!

Lale rushed over desperately, and Gita also recognized him, on the streets of Bratislava,

They hugged each other and burst into tears...

Since then, the survivors of Auschwitz, tattoo artist No. 32407 and female prisoner No. 34902, have never been separated...

In October 1945, Lale and Gita officially married, and they changed their surname to Sokolov...

Lale later opened a textile store and the business was booming...

Afterwards, the couple immigrated from Europe to Melbourne, Australia, and continued to run their textile business...

In 1961, the couple's son Gary was born...

They have walked hand in hand for half a century...

For many years, they kept a very low profile, and only a few friends knew sporadic information about this secret love in Auschwitz...

Even the couple's son, Gary, didn't know much about the details of how his parents met and fell in love at first...

It wasn't until Gita's death in 2003 that a writer accidentally learned of their story and interviewed Lale.

Hence the interview video at the beginning.

Lale also passed away in 2006 with endless longing for his wife...

As the author writes in the preface to his upcoming book, The Tattooist's Secret Love:

“Even in an era of persecution, oppression, and mutual hatred, we should not underestimate the power of love...”

This is the content of this article about the British drama - The Tattooist of Auschwitz - the true story prototype. I hope it can help the majority of friends who follow the drama. At the same time, we will continue to launch the latest and most complete plot analysis and character interpretations., I hope friends can continue to pay attention to the line class.