Despite It's Brutal Setting, 'The Tattooist Of Auschwitz' Tells A True ...

"The Tattooist of Auschwitz" tells the story of Gita and Lale as they work to stay together, and ... [+] survive, during their time in a concentration camp during World War II.

It doesn’t spoil anything about the series The Tattooist of Auschwitz to say this, but in the very first episode, one of the main characters tells the audience directly, “This is a love story.”

At this point in the narrative, it’s a bit hard to believe given that the backdrop of what’s to come takes place in a concentration camp.

Based on the 2018 novel by New Zealand writer Heather Morris, The Tattooist of Auschwitz tells the story of how Slovakian Jew Lale Sokolov, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz in 1942, fell in love with a girl, Gita, he was tattooing at the concentration camp. Through a series of interviews late in his life, Lale recounted the couple’s relationship to Morris in extreme detail.

“I loved the moment when Lale says that this is a love story, because it’s very truthful to his reality when he sat down with Heather Morris back in 2003 to tell his story,” says Claire Mundell, executive producer of the series. “Gita had just passed away and he desperately wanted to tell their story in full, which he absolutely did.”

She says that Lale was determined to tell every detail of the couple’s journey, but that in order to tell that love story, “what Lale discovered, and [viewers] discover as all of this unfolds, is that he has to relive these traumatic memories from the past; he has to make sense of them, he has to own them, he has to confess them. As soon as he opens the door to tell that love story, he also has to open the door to sharing the trauma, the reality of his guilt and shame, and all these things that weighed on his shoulders for 60 years.”

This contradiction of feelings is exactly why Mundell feels that people are drawn to this story.“I think the fact that there’s this beautiful love story that took place in one of the most notoriously horrific concentration and extermination camps is what’s so amazing to everyone.”

Mundell says that balancing the ‘love and hate, good and evil’ in the series was something that the creative team discussed during every step of the production. “We are telling a love story, but we're telling such a specific love story set in this place, and therefore, we have a responsibility to portray the darkness of that place. Although, you know, in many ways that's an impossible task. So we were constantly discussing that balance and how that connected to the tone of the piece and that we felt we needed to show brutality, nudity, harshness and death.”

All of this was necessary, as Mundell says, because, “we needed to show everything to honor Lale and Gita, and the courage they showed to be able to remain human in that environment where they were literally being dehumanized at every turn.”

Tali Shalom-Ezer, who served as director and co-executive producer on the series, says that staying as close to what Lale described as possible was her guiding light in crafting the direction of the series. She explains, “This story is told from what he experienced, and we stuck to that. This is decades after Lale left Auschwitz and he's trying to understand what he's been through. And he doesn't know if she's a good person or a bad person, because he did work with the Nazis and that weighs on him. So, we tried in every single scene to truly show his perspective.”

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 09: Tali Shalom Ezer, Heather Morris and Claire Mundell attend "The ... [+] Tattooist Of Auschwitz" Gala Screening at BAFTA on April 09, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage)

Mundell adds, “I think in telling his story, Lale is trying to unburden himself of all these conflicting thoughts that have been with him for so many years before he leaves the Earth, and that’s a very powerful thing to watch.”

She points out the while Lale was willing and able to talk about his experience in the camp, and beyond, Gita did not feel the same, which is just how Shalom-Ezer admits her grandfather, also a Holocaust survivor, felt.

“For me, on this project, there was something really inspiring about Lale being able to share his story. My grandfather was never able to do that with us,” says Shalom-Ezer.

While making the series, she says that she essentially put thoughts of her grandfather, and what may or may not have been his experience, aside. “I really wanted to focus on telling Lale and Gita’s story, but of course, especially because my grandfather lost all his family in Auschwitz, it did give me a specific connection to the story. But it's also because of my grandfather’s feelings about talking about his past that I have such admiration for Lale, who was able to share his story.”

Looking back to the beginning of the project, and the decision of whether to bring it to the screen, Mundell reveals, “You know, some stories should remain as books and there are other stories that really should to be dramatized, and this was the latter, because this story is so epic. It's a rarity in that it’s very intimate and yet epic at the same time.”

Adding to this, she believes that one of the key characteristics that sets The Tattooist of Auschwitz apart from other stories about the Holocaust experience is that, “we're framing our story through the eyes of the real Lale Sokolov, the elderly survivor, and the way in which the story even came to be, and it’s because of Heather Morris. If she had not taken the time to sit with this elderly man, spending two or three days a week with him for three years, none of us would know this story.”

She goes on to say, “I feel like we do have something very distinctive to offer in the telling of this experience, because while it’s obviously one man's experience, and everything he says comes through the prism of his point of view, I can't think of any other any other piece of work in this territory that show how acutely love binds people as well as this one does.”

Shalom-Ezer adds, “And I feel that there can never be enough stories told about the Holocaust. The concentration camps will always be warning signs for us; because it happened one time and it can happen again. So we need to tell these stories again and again and again in order to ensure that it will not happen again.”

And with this, Mundell also believes that, “Mainstream popular drama has the power to move people in a collective way. A television show can reach people who might not necessarily suddenly go and educate themselves about a subject matter such as the Holocaust, but a story like this can move people. It can get people talking, it can capture hearts and minds, and I hope that it does that on a global scale at a time when it feels like we need to learn to love each other.”

If nothing else, Shalom-Ezer wants people to emulate the lead characters, as she says, “Even going through everything that he did, Lale loved life, and I really hope that audiences will be inspired by this and love life the way he did.”

‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ is available for streaming on Peacock.