Is it possible to create a believable love story in a setting as hellish as Auschwitz? Barney Pell Scholes talks to the team behind the drama The Tattooist of Auschwitz to find out…

Although Heather Morris’s book The Tattooist of Auschwitz was a huge international bestseller when it was published in 2018, debate continues to rumble over its historical accuracy. Now, a new television adaptation for Sky attempts to tackle this head-on. For director Tali Shalom Ezer, “perhaps more than anything else, the show is about memory”.

The drama, which will be shown over six episodes, is based on the memories of the real-life Lali Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who was sent to Auschwitz. After becoming a camp tätowierer (tatooist) Lali fell in love with Gita, later his wife, when he tattooed her prisoner number onto her arm. The series depicts the recently widowed Lali, now in his 80s (played by Harvey Keitel) recounting his story to aspiring author Morris (Melanie Lynskey). “It was even more interesting how this story unfolds so many years later, when he’s sharing his stories,” says Shalom Ezer.

As Lali tells his story, ghosts from his past appear before his eyes, occasionally questioning the veracity and accuracy of his memories. Actor Jonah Hauer-King, who plays the younger version of Lali, says he played “every memory as if it was the truth, because, as it comes to Lali, that is how he’s experiencing it”.

Despite its nightmarish setting, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is ultimately about how love can flourish even in the darkest of places. The real Lali and Gita found each other after the war and remained married until Gita’s death in 2003. “The thing that I kept coming back to [was] this love at first sight experience in the camp. But then they spent the rest of their lives together. That is the part I find so fascinating and so inspiring,” says Hauer-King.

Both director and actor are conscious that the drama is being released at a time when antisemitism is on the rise around the world. “In these horrible times, it’s even more significant to remember this trauma,’ says Shalom Ezer. For the director, it was a challenge to direct a love story that unfolds in the most dehumanising place imaginable. “I discussed this with the creative team. We talked about how we could create this relationship. How could we make people believe it?”

The answer was to be true to the sincerity of Lali’s love for Gita. “In this environment of fear and death, that’s what kept him alive. Love. And what can be more incredible than that?”

By Barney Pell Scholes

Photos © Martin Milaka / Sky UK

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is available to stream on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV. sky.com/watch/the-tattooist-of-auschwitz

This article appears in the Spring 2024 issue of JR. Read our review of the The Tattooist of Auschwitz.