Books Set in Europe: Germany and Poland: Auschwitz

Auschwitz Lullaby, by Mario Escoabar (2018)

 

This novel is based on the true life of Helene Hannemann, a German housewife who married a Roma and had five children.  One morning in early 1943, the German police arrived at her door to take her husband and children away.  Although, because she was German and was eligible to stay safe, she couldn’t leave her husband and family.  They were told they were being sent to a relocation camp for Gypsies.  Instead, they were loaded onto cattle cars and shipped to Auschwitz.

 

Helene and her husband (called Johann in the book, although his name was actually Max) were separated.  The children, all under the age of 12, were allowed to stay with Helene in the Gypsy camp at Auschwitz.  They were separated from the Jewish population and received marginally better treatment.

 

Because she was a trained nurse, Helene was soon recruited into the camp hospital.  There she encountered Josef Mengele.  Partially to impress his higher-ups, Mengele appointed Helene to create a nursery school for the Romani children.  She is given paint, toys, school supplies and food for the nursery school.  She was also allowed to select some assistants to help with the children to give them as care-free a childhood as possible.  As the War continues, food for the nursery becomes scarcer and Helene encounters Mengele’s wrath when she asks for more.

 

This novel takes place in the span of about a year.  It gives a glimpse of the horrors of living in the concentration camp from the point of the Romani.  The book, however, was bookended, by reflections by Dr. Mengele.  Perhaps it was an attempt to “humanize” him, but I found it very disturbing.

 

Read:  April 6, 2021

 

3.5 Stars

 

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