Empty

This novel follows the story of Liel Sokolov, a Slovak Jew, who was imprisoned in the Auschwitz Birkenau camp. When his German Nazi captors found out that he spoke multiple languages, they forced him to take the job of tattoo artist in the camp, which meant that Sokolov had to write the identification number of each new prisoner entering the camp on their arm. This job brought security to Sokolov because the Nazis saw him as more useful than the other prisoners, and for example, his guards would give him more food than his fellow inmates, and a private compartment to sleep in outside the crowded detention rooms, and Sokolov used his position to meet the needs of other prisoners risking his life for his colleagues. During his work, Liel meets a girl named Gita, who comes to him to get her number tattooed on her on her first day in the concentration camp, and he falls in love with her. The novel highlights themes of survival, faith, love, and sacrifice, and Maurice's use of Gita and Liel's love story as the basis for this novel was enough to compensate for its weak writing.