The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Lale goes to bed happy. Gita falls asleep fantasizing about Lale. Cilka sleeps with Schwarzhuber in numb resignation. Hoess relaxes with a glass of wine. Baretski staggers to bed drunk and shoots his lightbulb.

The next morning, Lale notices Cilka’s downcast demeanor and vows to get Gita to tell her what happened to her. A hungover Baretski instructs Lale that they are to report to Auschwitz Block 10.

Lale has never been to Block 10. The prisoners here are “girls, dozens of them, naked—many lying down, some sitting, some standing, hardly any of them moving” (125). Lale is horrified. An officer makes him enter the building.

Inside, Mengele examines and rejects naked girls in a line. Mengele seems to enjoy Lale’s obvious discomfort. He tells Lale to tattoo the girls he has selected, adding, “‘One day soon, Tätowierer, I will take you’” (126). Lale tries to overcome his fear and attempts to reassure the girls he tattoos. When he leaves the “hospital,” he sees the fenced-in area has been emptied.

Back in her block, Gita discovers that one of the new arrivals is her neighbor, Hilda Goldstein, from her hometown, Vranov and Topl’ou.