105 pages • 3 hours read
Heather MorrisThe Tattooist of Auschwitz
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 22-24 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary
More and more prisoners arrive at Auschwitz. A hierarchy forms in their ranks; Lale realizes “[t]he higher the number on a person’s arm, the less respect they receive from everyone else” (195). Turf wars between nationalities erupt. In the women’s compound, conflict arises between the Slovaks and the newly-arrived Hungarians.
Gita becomes the target of jealousy due to her relatively safe administration job, her relationship with Lale, and her friendship with Cilka. Lale’s position renders him “largely immune to camp disputes” (196). The SS do not bother him, and the Romany he shares the block with like and respect him.
One night, the SS raid the Romany camp. All men, women, and children are rounded up. Lale and Nadya exchange a final goodbye, which is cut short by the SS. She tells Lale, “‘I go where my people go,’” and then is gone (197).
The next day, Mengele comes to taunt Lale and Leon, but does nothing beyond this. Ash from the crematorium lands on them and Lale cannot help but scream: “‘You bastards! You fucking bastards!’” (118). Thinking of Nadya, he cannot contain his rage. Mengele returns. He threatens to take him away, or to shoot him on the spot. Lale barely manages to bury his rage and preserve his life.
Returning to his block, he sees that his adoptive Romany family has been replaced by the newcomers he tattooed that day. He does not wish to meet them that night. Lale “wants only silence in his block” (199).
Chapter 23 Summary
Lale is distraught at the fate of his Romany friends. Not even Gita can console him. He has not reached this level of depression before, and she reprimands him, reminding him of the countless thousands that have died during their imprisonment at Auschwitz. This snaps him out of it; he will continue to live to in order to honor his adoptive Romany family.
An explosion rocks the prison yard, interrupting their conversation. Lale recognizes that several of the crematoria are being blown up. A fire fight breaks out; the two run for cover. They have no idea what’s happening.
Lale later hears that the explosion was a small rebellion on the part of the prisoners. Women working in a nearby ammunition plant have gradually smuggled in enough gunpowder for the Sonderkommandos to make grenades.
The Russian Army is advancing, though “Lale has seen no lessening of the dedication of the Nazi machine to the extermination of the Jews and other groups” (204). Finally, the prisoners begin to feel some sense of hope.
Chapter 24 Summary
A bitterly cold autumn wears on into winter 1945. The flow of prisoners into Auschwitz slows. Lale’s contraband currency has diminished; workers are not coming into camp, so he has not been able to meet with Victor and Yuri. The crematoria damaged in the rebellion will not be repaired, and “For the first time in Lale’s memory, more people are leaving Birkenau than are entering” (206).
One morning, Lale is told that Leon is gone. When Lale asks Baretski what this means, he offers no reply, but warns that Lale may be transported out of Birkenau as well. Leon’s disappearance “taps into reserves of pain Lale did not know he still had” (206). Lale confronts Baretski, telling him that the Nazi’s version of the world will fall. Baretski threatens him and leaves.
On another morning, Gita runs to Lale, telling him that something is going on. The SS “seem to be panicking” (207). Lale tells Gita to return to her block with Dana until he can get her. Chaos engulfs the administration building. A worker tells Lale that the camp will begin being emptied the next day. The Russians are close.
Lale runs to the women’s block to share the news. Uncertain of what the emptying of the concentration camp means for the prisoners, Lale takes the opportunity to thank Dana for being such a good friend to Gita. He tells Cilka that she is the bravest person he has ever met and that she “‘must not carry any guilt for what has happened here. You are an innocent—remember that’” (209).
Gita refuses to hear anything from him other than that she will see him tomorrow. Lale realizes that these women have been damaged irreparably by their experience; their “visions they once had of themselves […] will forever be tainted by what they’ve witnessed and endured” (209).
That night, SS officers enter the women’s camp and “paint a bright-red slash down the back of each girl’s coat” (209). Though they do not know what this means, Cilka, Dana, Ivana, and Gita are relieved that they will share the same fate, whatever it is.
Commotion wakes Lale that night. He is reminded of the liquidation of the Gypsy camp. He goes outside to see thousands of women prisoners being corralled in great confusion; it seems “neither guards nor prisoners know quite what is expected” (210). He hurries to catch up with Gita and Dana. Gita sobs. Lale is so focused that he does not see an SS officer approach. The officer hits Lale in the face with his rifle. Gita and Dana are swept away.
Bleeding from the head, Lale rushes to catch up. Another guard blocks his progress. As she is swept through the gates, Gita shouts her full name to Lale: Gita Furman. Then she is gone.
A Nazi officer helps Lale to his feet; it is “an act of kindness from the enemy at the eleventh hour” (211).
The next day, Lale awakes to explosions and cannon fire. He rushes outside. The main gates are open and “[h]undreds of prisoners walk through, unchallenged” (212). He is accidentally swept up into the crowd and forced onto a train. When the train begins to move, “he sees SS open fire on those who remain” (212).
Chapters 22-24 Analysis
This section explores the theme of loss and the many ways it manifests in Auschwitz. Not only does Lale lose his adoptive family when the Gypsy camp is emptied, he also loses his close friend and work partner, Leon. Finally, when the evacuation of Auschwitz begins, he loses Gita as well, though he does not know her fate. By the end of Chapter 24, he is left to face an uncertain future alone.
Lale’s stages of grief transition from denial, to anger, to depression. Gita is able to break the spell of his grief by reminding him of the stark reality of their situation. Both Lale and Gita deal daily in the liminal space between life and death. Lale marks prisoners; Gita sorts their information. Gita does not have the privilege of seeing the incoming prisoners as anonymous letters. She carries a tremendous amount of grief in knowing the identities of the victims around her. The scope of tragedy is often lost in the anonymity of statistics.
The evacuation is preceded by many signs indicating the gradual defeat of Nazi Germany at the hands of the Allied forces. Gita and the other women are moved first, possibly to try to mitigate the spectacle of atrocity that thousands of abused, malnourished, and diseased female prisoners would present to the outside world. The American plane flying over is the first sign; the plane symbolizes the hope that crystalizes when the gates are finally opened. The failed rebellion of the Sonderkommandos is another. Though they had planned a much larger rebellion, they still managed to cause some damage. One of the crematoria is put out of commission.
It is the approach of the Russian forces that signals the ultimate end of Auschwitz. Lale leaves the concentration camp in a similar way to the way he entered: on a train, in a scene of mass confusion.
