Books Set in Europe: Poland

The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris (2018)

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the experiences of Lale Sokolov and Gita Furman who were deported to Auschwitz in the early 1940s, and remained there until the end of World War II.

Lale was a young Slovakian Jew who was rounded up, ostensibly for construction work, in 1942.  He soon found himself a prisoner at Auschwitz.  At the time he was taken, he was not aware of the full extent of Nazi actions.  Because he spoke several languages, he became the assistant to a French Jew named Pepan, the tattooist.  Pepan took Lale under his wing and taught him the art of tattooing.  Although he despised the work, he learned to keep his head down and tattooed the numbers on the arms of Jews entering the camp.  One day his tattooist mentor disappeared, he Lale became the primary tattooist.  This position gave him privileges not afforded other prisoners.

One day, he tattooed the arm of a young women.  Although she had already been shorn of her hair, he thought she was beautiful.  He learned her name was Gita and she was a prisoner at Birkenau.  She, too, was given a “job” at Auschwitz, which provided her with some protections.  The two young people were able to arrange meetings and they fell in love.

Because of Lale’s position and privileges, he was able to smuggle extra rations of food and clothing to some of the other prisoners.  Lale did what he had to do to survive and to try to keep some of his fellow prisoners alive.

When the War ended, Lale and Gita were separated, however, they continued to search for each other, as well as their family members.  Ultimately, they found each other and after the War, they married.  They ended up living in Australia.  He kept his work as at tattooist secret for many years for fear that he would be considered a Nazi collaborator since his work in the Auschwitz kept him alive.

After Gita died, Lale met with the author and told his story.  It is a fascinating tale of love and survival amid unthinkable horror.

Read:  November 19, 2019

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States: New York

The Grammarians, by Cathleen Schine (2019)

The Grammarians is a novel about a set of identical twins, Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, who were obsessed with words and the English language.  Their favorite book as a child is an old dictionary, which they pore over intently.

As children, they are inseparable, but as they grow up, the language that was the glue that kept them together, becomes the cause of their separation.

I didn’t care for the characters and their mundane lives.

This book was recommended by one of my book groups that focuses on Jewish-themed books.  This was billed as describing growing up in a middle-class Jewish family from the 1950s to present.  There was virtually no Jewish content to this novel.

Read:  November 8, 2019

2 Stars

Books Set in Europe: France, Austria, and England

The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal (2010)

The Hare with Amber Eyes is a memoir of the author’s paternal ancestors, who were once of the wealthy European Jewish Ephrussi’s of the banking dynasty.  The memoir starts with a telling of the author’s great-uncle Charles Ephrussi, an art collector in Paris.  In the 1870’s, Charles acquired over 260 Japanese netsuke, the small wood and ivory carvings of plants and animals.  One of the netsuke was a hare with amber eyes, hence the title of the book.

Charles gave the netsuke to his Viennese cousin, Viktor Ephrussi, as a wedding present.  Viktor was the author’s great-grandfather, which is how the items came into the possession of the author’s family.

Because the Ephrussi’s were Jewish, albeit secular, during the Nazi regime and World War II, they lost everything, including the extensive art collection.  Amazingly, the netsuke survived and remained in the family.  (We learn the story of their survival in the book.)  The author inherited the netsuke collection, which led him to explore his family’s history.

His grandmother, Elizabeth Ephurssi, converted to Anglican Church when she married the Dutch Hendrik de Waal.  The author father, Elizabeth’s son, became an Anglican priest, thus the memoir is in part a search into the author’s Jewish past.  I found it a rather uncomfortable search.

I read this book because it was a selection of one of my book discussion groups.

Read:  November 4, 2018

2 Stars