Thurles Information

Love Will Survive (from The Tattooist of Auschwitz)

The book “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” is an truly an extraordinary book, which relates a true story about the extremes of human behaviour existing, each side by side; the calculated brutality alongside impulsive and selfless acts of love.

This true story relates to a fact that in April 1942, pre-war business man Lale Sokolov, [born Ludwig Eisenberg on October 28th 1916 ], latter a Slovakian Jew, was forcibly transported to the WWII concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that Lale speaks several languages, he is forced to work as a Tätowierer (German word for tattooist), tasked with the permanently marking of his fellow prisoners arms.

While imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale, (latter prisoner number 32407), witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism, but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Now, often risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange money and jewellery, same taken from Jewish prisoners already murdered in the camp, using same to acquire food, thus keeping his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale comforts a nervous young woman, latter waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. He discovers her name is Gita [(Giselle) Cycowicz (née Friedman)] born in 1927 in Chust, Czechoslovakia, (today Khust, Ukraine), and from his first encounter with her, Lale vows to somehow survive the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp and marry her, same marriage in fact come to pass in 1945.

Love Will Survive (from “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”)

Vocals: American singer, actress, songwriter, producer and director Ms Barbra Streisand.
Lyrics: American songwriter and record producer Charlie Midnight, in collaboration with German-born American film score composer and music producer Hans Zimmer, composer for film and television Ms Kara Talve and American record producer and songwriter Walter Afanasieff.

Love Will Survive (from “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”)

Until I find you and walk beside you,
Until we face every heartache together,
I’ll keep believing, feel your breathing, hear your cries,
With every season of sorrow, somehow our love survives.
As nights grew longer, our prayers grew stronger,
And in the darkness, we kept hope alive.
We made a promise that love will survive.
And in our dreams, we are running from shadows,
Leaving behind the tears and the ghosts.
Until I’m near you, somehow, I’ll hear you,
Your voice will echo inside me forever.
And in our dreams, we are running from shadows,
Leaving behind the tears and the ghosts,
Whilst our years were taken, our spirits shaken,
But in the darkness, we kept hope alive.
We made a promise that love will survive.
Love will survive.

End

The book is a vivid, harrowing, yet ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov’s experiences, as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of fellow prisoners with what would eventually become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, which was Nazi Germany’s deliberate, organized, state-sponsored persecution and genocide of European Jews. During WWII, this Nazi regime and their collaborators systematically murdered over six million Jewish people.

The book, “The Tattooist of Auschwitz“ is a true testament to the endurance of love and humanity, under the darkest possible conditions of a concentration camp during WWII.