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105 pages 3 hours read

Heather Morris

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

A 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.

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Prologue-Chapter 3

Reading Check

1. What did Lale volunteer to do in an attempt to save his family from Nazi persecution?

2. What is Lale’s prisoner number?

3. What are the kapos?

4. When Lale is first made the sole Tätowierer of Auschwitz, who is named as his assistant?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. According to Lale, why does he work slower than usual when tattooing young girls?

2. What happens in the livestock car that shows Lale commands respect from his fellow prisoners? What are some of the reasons he might immediately gain their respect?

Paired Resource

German-made WW II-Era Freight Wagon Installed at Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York

  • Lale and nearly 50 other prisoners are transported to Auschwitz via a livestock car. A freight car is a central feature of an exhibit—Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.—that ran from May 2019 to January 2020 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.
  • Why do you think the freight car was central to this exhibition? What makes it a particularly powerful symbol of the Trauma that Jewish people suffered at Auschwitz?

Chapters 4-8

Reading Check

1. What are Lale and Barteski both obsessed with?

2. How much time does Barteski give Lale to write his message to the girl with the number 34902?

3. What does Lale bring for the girl, as a token of affection, when he goes to meet her on Sunday?

4. What expensive piece of jewelry does Gita tell Lale she wants him to use for bartering?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does the girl with the number 34902 say in her reply to Lale’s initial message? What vital piece of information does she not reveal?

2. What does Lale realize when Victor tells him they’re building “Crematorium One”?

Chapters 9-12

Reading Check

1. With what letter does Lale’s supervisor tell him all tattoos will begin with?

2. To what disease has Nadya, a Romany woman Lale befriends, lost her husband?

3. What is the name of the Nazi doctor supervising Lale?

4. What kind of game does Barteski ask Lale to organize?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 11, Lale notices a flower on his walk back to his room that makes him overcome with emotion. What is he thinking of in this moment?

Paired Resource

How Did Josef Mengele Become the Evil Doctor of Auschwitz?”

  • In this New York Times book review of a 2020 biography of the notorious doctor (Mengele: Unmasking the “Angel of Death” by David G. Marwell), the reviewer discusses how Mengele became such a central figure in Holocaust history. (Subscription may be needed to view.)
  • What new light does Marwell’s book shed on Mengele as a historical figure? How does it deepen readers’ understanding of the Trauma that Jewish people endured during and after the Holocaust?

Chapters 13-16

Reading Check

1. In Chapter 13, Lale is called to a block that he’s never been to before. What is this block called?

2. What major medical procedure has Leon undergone while in Doctor Mengele’s “care”?

3. What is the block number where Gita lives?

4. What does Lale promise the kapo as a bribe, to keep them from telling their superiors that Lale stayed the night with Gita?

5. What does Lale give Bella as a gift, for having a boy slated for execution transferred to another camp?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 14, why is Lale called to the crematorium?

Chapters 17-21

Reading Check

1. What item of clothing does Barteski want Lale to smuggle for his girlfriend?

2. Where is Lale ordered to go when his contraband of jewels and food is discovered by SS officers?

3. What manual labor task must Lale and his fellow prisoners perform in the prison yard?

4. What expensive item of jewelry do two boys offer Lale as payment for food?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. When Gita finally tells Lale about Cilka and Schwarzhuber, she reassures him that Cilka can’t get pregnant. Why?

Paired Resource

Auschwitz Renovations Unearth Prisoners’ Hidden Trove of Tools

  • In May 2020, a stash of cutlery, tools, pieces of leather, and parts of shoes that had been hidden by Auschwitz prisoners was discovered under a chimney during renovation work at the camp. Pictures of the objects are included in the article.
  • Connects to the themes of Trauma and The Cost of Survival
  • What strikes you most about the assortment of objects stowed away in the chimney? What might Lale have used these objects for in Auschwitz’s black market?

Chapters 22-24

Reading Check

1. In the women’s compound, what two nationalities have a major conflict in Chapter 22?

2. What substance lands on Lale’s face that causes him to shout, “You bastards!” in a fit of rage against the Nazis?

3. What does Lale realize is being blown up when an explosion rocks the prison yard?

4. What group is behind the explosions?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 24, Gita notes to Lale that the SS “seem to be panicking.” What are some signs in this chapter that something is afoot in the camp? Name at least two examples.

Chapters 25-27

Reading Check

1. As the women prisoners—including Gita and Cilka—march through the snow, who falls to their knees, too exhausted to go on?

2. To what city in Slovakia does Gita eventually join a convoy?

3. What does Lale risk bringing with him on the train out of Auschwitz to Mauthausen?

4. What skill of Lale’s makes him of special interest to Russian officials?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. War tends to breed cruelty, though the cruelty Lale and Gita experience at the hands of Russian soldiers in Chapters 25-27 is tempered with kindness. What are two examples of this?

Paired Resource

The Shocking Liberation of Auschwitz: Soviets ‘Knew Nothing’ as They Approached

  • When Russian forces broke through German defenses and finally reached Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, they had no idea about the horrors that they would find inside.
  • This History.com article describes the moments leading up to the Soviets’ liberation of Auschwitz.
  • Connects to the theme of To Save One Is to Save the World
  • What in this description of the liberation of Auschwitz do you see mirrored in The Tattooist of Auschwitz? Where do you see differences?

Chapter 28-Epilogue

Reading Check

1. How long does it take for Lale to make the journey from Bratislava to Krompachy?

2. What mode of transportation does Lale take back to Bratislava to look for Gita?

3. What surname does Lale adopt to blend in with the general population in Soviet-controlled Slovakia?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. As described by Lale’s sister Goldie, what was the fate of the rest of Lale’s family during the war?

Recommended Next Reads

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

  • Written between 1942 and 1944, The Diary of a Young Girl is the quintessential eyewitness account of the Jewish experience during World War II and the Holocaust, all told from the perspective of a Jewish teenager.
  • Themes of Trauma and The Cost of Survival during the Holocaust are both explored in depth.
  • The Diary of a Young Girl on SuperSummary.com

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

  • Journalist Antonio Iturbe was inspired to write this novel when he read about the smallest library in the world, found in the Auschwitz concentration camp. While researching this library, he stumbled upon the story of Dita Adlerova, the young girl who carried out the duty of librarian.
  • Shining a light on one small but important life, Iturbe grapples with Trauma and The Cost of Survival amidst the unspeakable horrors of World War II.
  • The Librarian of Auschwitz on SuperSummary.com
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By Heather Morris