What happened to Lali and Gita, as seen in The Tattooist of Auschwitz?
The Sky Atlantic drama tells their extraordinary true love story.
Lali and Gita Sokolov's true love story is the subject of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris's bestselling book and now a six-part drama for Sky Atlantic.
Lali (née Ludwig Eisenberg), a Jewish man from Slovakia, was 26 when he was transported to Auschwitz in April 1942. He was managing a department store in Bratislava when he volunteered to go, not yet aware of what was really happening there, so that his family could remain together.
When he arrived, he was put to work building housing blocks for the rapidly expanding numbers, but had to stop when he became ill with typhoid. Lali was looked after by a man called Pepan, a French scholar and the one who had inked his ID number – 32407 – onto him.
When Pepan suddenly disappeared a few weeks later, Lali, who could speak several languages, became the camp's tetovierer – main tattooist – and worked for the SS's Political Wing, which meant he had an officer assigned to him.
Over a two-year period, he tattooed hundreds of thousands of inmates – by the spring of 1943, all of those imprisoned had been branded – one of whom was Gita Furman.
"I tattooed her number on her left hand, and she tattooed her number in my heart," he later told Morris (via CBC).
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He first met her in July 1942 and their connection bloomed instantly. Lali would send her letters, facilitated by his guard, as well as extra rations. And they would meet in secret on Sundays, which was their only day of rest.
But Lali and Gita lost contact in 1945 when she was sent to Mauthausen camp, just two days before the Russians advanced.
Lali later managed to escape, swimming the Danube to avoid capture, and travelled back to Slovakia, where he searched for Gita and miraculously found her.
What happened to Lali and Gita, as seen in The Tattooist of Auschwitz?
Lali and Gita married in October 1945 while living in Czechoslovakia. It was there that they changed their surname to Sokolov to better fit into the Soviet-controlled region.
They ran their own silk fabric factory and were also collecting and sending money to support the creation of an Israeli state. Eventually, the government stepped in and nationalised the business, and Lali was also sent to prison.
Read more:
- The Tattooist of Auschwitz stars on "fear and trepidation" of joining cast
- How The Tattooist of Auschwitz tells a love story against a backdrop of horror
When he was freed, the couple left Czechoslovakia, first travelling to Vienna, followed by Paris and then Sydney in 1948, where they met a couple from Melbourne and decided to move there.
That became their final stop and they opened another factory which made women's clothing.
Gita died in 2003, aged 78, while Lali died in 2007 at the age of 90. They are survived by their son Gary, who was born in 1961.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is coming 2nd May to Sky Atlantic and NOW. Sign up for Sky TV here.
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