TEHRAN – New Zealander writer Heather Morris’ “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” has recently been published in Persian by Chatrang Publications in Tehran.

Translated by Fereshteh Shayan, the book is based on the true story of Lale and Gita Sokolov, two Slovakian Jews, who survived Auschwitz and eventually made their home in Australia.

In that terrible place, Lale was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival, literally scratching numbers into his fellow victims’ arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust.

Lale used the infinitesimal freedom of movement that this position awarded him to exchange jewels and money taken from murdered Jews for food to keep others alive.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian version of “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” by Heather Morris.

ABU/MMS/YAW