The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Lale Sokolov grew up in Slovakian village and was taken to Auschwitz at the age of 26 when Nazis came to his town and forced all children over the age of 16 to be given up to help the Nazi labor force. As soon as he came to Auschwitz he witnessed the weak be shot and the strong were used to build new structures. After a few months, he contracted typhoid and was put on a cart that led to his death, luckily, a French prisoner named Pepan carried him back to the barracks and nursed him back to health.
Pepan was the current tattooist at Auschwitz and he turned Sokolov into his assistant as he spoke five languages and learned quickly. The tattoos served as identification but was also a tool of dehumanization for the Nazis and although Sokolov hated the job at first, he quickly used it for his benefit. One day, Pepan disappeared and Sokolov took his job where he got a private room, larger rations and he could wander the camp as he pleased but he also had to deal with working closely with Joseph Mengele.
Sokolov started using his position to help other prisoners, Czesław Mordowicz was a Jewish prisoner who had escaped and was captured, facing death for his actions. However, Sokolov covered his identification tattoo with a rose tattoo and helped him escape again and he was no longer identified as a Jew. Sokolov worked with locals and he would get the girls who worked in Kanada to steal jewelry for him which he would get the locals in return for sausage and chocolate, which he gave to other prisoners to help them survive.Sokolov is a great example of a Jewish person who used their position in order to help as many others as possible to survive the harsh conditions they lived in. He risked his life every day by saving others and many people at the camp saw him as a hero by the end of the war while he believed he was just doing the right thing.
https://nypost.com/2018/09/08/this-man-was-the-savior-tattoo-artist-of-the-holocaust/
https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-42568390
I wanted to learn a little more about Sokolov and see what happened to him after the war and found that two days before the liberation of Auschwitz , Sokolov was moved to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. He managed to escape the concentration camp, and returned to his native place, in what was then Czechoslovakia. He went to Bratislava in search for Gita Fuhrmannova's. Bratislava was the main entry point for returning survivors. Solokov searched for her for weeks and when they finally found each, the couple married in 1945, at this point he changed his surname from Eisenberg to the more Russian-sounding Sokolov. He then opened a factory in Bratislava. During this time, he was involved in collecting money in support of the creation of the State of Israel.This activity and the nationalisation of industry by the country's communist government, resulted in him being imprisoned and having his business seized.[2] He was soon released and the couple emigrated to Australia in 1948.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lale_Sokolov
This is an intriguing story. So Pepan really just disappeared in the middle of the night? I wonder what he did. At the beginning I didn't totally understand why he was taken to a labor camp, just because he was from Slovakia?
ReplyDeleteSo I looked it up and Slovakia was an ally to the Nazis, Sokolov lived in a primarily Jewish neighborhood so that's why everyone was taken.
Anyways, thanks for sharing!