Plot Synopsis

Based on Heather Morris's 2018 book of the same name, THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ is a six-episode limited series that is inspired by the real-life story of Lali Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who, in 1942, was deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The series is directed by Tali Shalom-Ezer and executive produced by Claire Mundell. Shortly after his arrival, Lali was made one of the tatowierer (tattooists), charged to ink identification numbers onto fellow prisoners' arms. One day, he meets Gita when tattooing her prisoner number on her arm. They experience love at first sight, and so begins a courageous, unforgettable, and human story. Under constant guard from a volatile Nazi SS officer Stefan Baretzki, Lali and Gita became determined to keep each other alive. Around 60 years later, Lali meets novice writer Heather Morris. Recently widowed, Lali finds the courage to tell the world his story. In recounting his story to Heather, Lali, in his 80s, faces the traumatic ghosts of his youth and relives his memories of falling in love in the most horrific of places. Barbra Streisand has recorded a brand-new song, "Love Will Survive," which is the end title of the series. All six episodes of THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ dropped on Thursday, May 2, 2024 on Peacock:

Episode 1: Heather meets octogenarian Lali who wants to tell his life story, an extraordinary tale of love and survival in a Nazi concentration camp -- Auschwitz. It begins when, to protect his family, young Lali volunteers to go to the "work camp," so that his father and his brother may be spared. But none of the people forced on to the cramped and filthy cattle train they are transported in on their journey to the camp, knew the truth of what they were about to experience. After being starved, worked to the bone and barely surviving typhus, Lali is offered the job of a tattooist by Pepan, the man who tattooed Lali's number on his arm. It's a role that will make him part of the Political Wing of the SS and though riven with guilt, Lali is confronted with the dark reality around him and accepts. What he can't yet know is that not only will this role ensure his survival, but it will also facilitate a fateful meeting across the tattooing table with a young woman who will become the love of his life -- prisoner 4562.

Episode 2: Driven to see her again, Lali takes a huge risk to contact prisoner 4562. He does a deal with Baretzki offering him advice on how to talk to women in exchange for Baretzki delivering a note to her. But in doing so he inadvertently puts her in grave danger. Through this trade, Lali and Baretzki become dangerously enmeshed, but the note pays off. After a snatched meeting with her, Lali learns that 4562 feels the same as him and is called 'Gita'. Their nascent love gives both of them hope, whilst all around them, many struggle to survive the despair of the camp. They also use their connection to begin to operate as part of the secret black market in the camp. But no sooner has Lali found Gita than he learns she has a cut on her arm which has turned septic and given her a fever and severe infection. Knowing that any sign of illness could result in selection for the gas chambers, Lali fears that his newfound love may soon be dead.

Episode 3: As Old Lali recounts this torturous memory, Heather starts to experience the cost of revisiting the past as she navigates the painful twin paths of truth and grief with Lali. Waking to the devastating news that Pepan has been selected for the gas chambers, Lali is forced to pick a new tattooist. He chooses a victimised young prisoner called Leon. Lali forms a friendship with Leon, who confides in Lali in a moment of trust, that he is gay. Lali has no further news of Gita and begins to fear the worst, but when Baretzki sends them both to tattoo prisoners at the "Hospital", Lali sees an opportunity to get medicine for Gita. After tattooing the woman, Lali takes a huge risk and asks Schumann for medicine. In exchange for this, he must complete a 'small task' for Dr Schumann which involves ushering naked women, with whom Schumann has completed his experiments and has no further use for, out into the treacherously cold yard. Full of guilt, Lali procures the medicine, but it will be Leon who pays a high price for the medicine that saves Gita. Lali asks Baretzki to get Gita a job in the administration building to keep her safe, but events take another dark turn when he discovers his barracks have been raided and his stash of black- market goods discovered.

Episode 4: Gita is fraught with worry over Lali's whereabouts. He hasn't been seen for days and she fears he has been selected for the gas chamber. Through accessing the prisoner book in the administration building, however, she discovers that Lali has been sent to the notorious Block 11 in Auschwitz I, where prisoners are beaten, interrogated, and often executed. After noticing her relationship with an SS officer, and without knowing the true cost of her request, Gita pleads with Cilka to use her connections to free Lali from the torture of Block 11. The weight of Old Lali's story takes its toll on Heather's health, and she suffers a panic attack which forces her to go to hospital. The enforced break enables Heather to take stock and create some boundaries for the work she and Lali are doing together, but these new ground rules also involve. Lali making a commitment to no longer hold anything back from Heather. In this moment of commitment and trust, she gives Lali the first 100 pages of the book to read.

Episode 5: Heather and Old Lali's relationship enters a new phase. They achieve a new level of trust as Lali confesses more of the truth about his experiences. There is a bizarre sense in the camp that the end is nigh, but in their panic and fear, the Nazis are growing increasingly erratic and increasingly dangerous. Gita helps a young woman give birth in their block and conceal the baby, but this leads to the sacrifice of someone Gita holds dear. When the women are marched out of the camp, Lali is alerted and miraculously, they manage to make a plan before Gita is swept away in the marching crowd. Lali is marched out shortly after to another camp. Despite both Lali and Gita being evacuated from the camp they are a long way from being free. Gita endures the death march and Lali is captured by Russian soldiers and is forced to work for them.

Episode 6: After escaping the Russians, Lali makes his way to Bratislava but has no idea if Gita is alive or dead. In a moment of fate, they find each other. Lali and Gita forge a life together after the war, but the past is never far away, and they struggle with their guilt and inability to start a family. Old Lali tells Heather about the request he received from Baretzki to support him in the war trials, which caused problems in his marriage with Gita. Heather travels alone to Auschwitz after Lali passes away and writes the book he would have loved.