What is striking about Heather Morris’ new book, based on the powerful and true story of “Lale” Sokolov, and focusing on his experience in the most appalling of the Nazi camps, is how very readable it is.
Lale was a 24-year-old from Slovakia, forced with many other young Jewish men into a cattle wagon bound for Auschwitz in April 1942. He hoped the fact that he was taken, rather than his married brother, would be a way of protecting his family. He was tattooed with a number on his arrival, like all inmates not bound for immediate extermination: the numbers were to eradicate their identity as human beings.
