Holocaust love story criticised
A New Zealand author has been accused of exaggerations in her bestselling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
The Auschwitz Memorial, in its historical fact-checking review, claimed Heather Morris did not verify some of the facts in her book even though the information was publicly available.
Morris told the Sunday StarTimes her novel is based on Slovakian Jew Lale Sokolov’s personal recollection and experience of the concentration camp, and ‘‘it is not an official history’’.
However, the Auschwitz Memorial said the book contained ‘‘numerous errors and information inconsistent with the facts, as well as exaggerations, misinterpretations, and understatements on which the overall unauthentic picture of the camp’s reality is built’’.
The Memorial told The Guardian that it decided to factcheck the book because it was presented as ‘‘based on a true story’’ and most readers ‘‘do not have enough knowledge to distinguish facts and fictions here’’.
Sokolov’s job at Auschwitz was to tattoo numbers on new prisoners. Morris’ book tells how he found love with one of them, Gita Furman.
‘‘I am deeply honoured that Lale Sokolov chose to share his memories with me. For three years I listened as he spoke of his love for his wife, Gita, of their meeting in Auschwitz-Birkenau, of their survival in that terrible place, and of the subsequent life they spent together.
‘‘I have carried that story for many years more, attempting faithfully and respectfully to capture its emotional weight and significance, and to fulfil my promise to Lale that his story would be told.’’
The Auschwitz Memorial’s six-page review cites incorrect routes taken to the concentration camp and rooms on the premises, the number given to Gita (34902) and her camp experiences.
The review also disputed the account of Lale obtaining penicillin for Gita when she was infected with typhus in January 1943, saying that the drug was still in its research phase during that period.
The Auschwitz Memorial’s review concluded the book was based on the authentic history of a prisoner whose stay and function in the camp can be documented, but those recollections were ‘‘very loose’’.
‘‘Much of the information presented in the book is not confirmed in sources and literature on the subject. The book should, therefore, be perceived as an impression devoid of documentary value on the topic of Auschwitz, only inspired by authentic events.’’
The author ‘‘did not conduct factographic verification based on publicly available academic literature’’.
Morris said Sokolov had read a draft of the screenplay based on her novel before he died and that he ‘‘was happy with what I had written’’.
‘‘If my novel inspires people to learn more about the Holocaust, to delve deeper, to ask questions about what happened, then I could ask for nothing more, and it would have achieved everything that Lale himself wished for.’’
More than a million people died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland during World War II.