In The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the two protagonists, Lali and Gita, suffer barbaric torture at the Auschwitz concentration camp, run by Nazi Germany. In the midst of all that horror, they do find love. The series is based on the book by Heather Morris, who appears as a character here. Here, we see an older Lali telling Heather the story of his life. The story does end on a happy note if you consider the fact that Lali and Gita got married, had a son, and went on to live for so many years after their horrific experience at Auschwitz. But in the final twenty minutes, the show dangles a very important question, which rarely any show or movie does – do people who suffer that amount of trauma ever recover? We’re going to get into that in this article, but before that, let us take a look at the ending of The Tattooist of Auschwitz series.
Spoilers Ahead
Do Lali and Gita reunite?
After suffering for three years in Auschwitz, Lali and Gita finally manage to get away from the camp – thanks to World War II coming to an end. They both escape while getting transferred to other camps and after a series of struggles, the two finally meet again in Bratislava. From there on, it seems like smooth sailing for the duo – having a dream wedding and then moving to Australia. Unfortunately, though, it didn’t turn out to be as easy as they imagined. The past doesn’t really leave them. Gita has it especially difficult and struggled for many years. Meanwhile, Lali receives a request from Stefan Baretzki, the SS officer who helped him on many occasions at Auschwitz, to testify in his favor. While Lali is conflicted about whether to help Baretzki or not, Gita is absolutely against helping him. She has all the rights in the world to object; Baretzki was a monster, after all, who murdered so many people. This essentially causes a rift between Gita and Lali, who are already not doing well in terms of their relationships. Gita leaves for Europe, and while Lali is unsure she’ll ever come back, she does return. She confesses that she wasn’t planning to return, but then she got pregnant. In the present day, Lali talks to Heather about how Gita kept having nightmares even after the birth of their son. Then, he requests Heather to visit the camp with her. We don’t know for sure if Lali ever visited the camp again, but we see Heather visiting the camp alone. We also get to see the real Lali in a heartbreaking interview, before the credits go to black.
Did Lali and Gita Find Their “Happily Ever After”?
The Tattooist of Auschwitz went all the way when it came to showing the amount of suffering both Lali and Gita had to endure at Auschwitz. While sitting through all of that was rather difficult for the audience, it was also sort of a necessity in order to explain why Lali and Gita’s life after Auschwitz was far from what people would imagine.
While The Tattooist of Auschwitz could have taken the easy way out by ending the story with Lali and Gita’s ending, the makers of the show decided to take the difficult route of delving into the couple’s life in Australia. Not that much was shown to us, but from what little we got, it was not hard to understand that things were a little short of blissful for Lali and Gita. Especially for Gita, it turned out to be way too much to deal with. One might wonder why she would not be okay, given that she got to reunite with the love of her life and move far away from the place that was nothing short of hell for her. But we also need to remember what Gita actually had to go through – from seeing her friends getting beaten and murdered like animals to witnessing them being thrown into the gas chambers. Not to forget, even after getting out of Auschwitz, Gita had to endure the pain of her friend getting raped right beside her. Every day, she had to live with fear of her life ending at any moment. Imagine living like that for three years; then you might be able to realize what Gita might be feeling!
For Lali, I suppose it was the guilt of all the terrible things he did for Baretzki. It’s not that he had any other choice, as he had to do everything in order to survive. Especially after finding love, his number one priority was to survive for Gita. But what he did and also what he suffered scarred him for life – so much that he never wanted to go back to Europe. As far as helping Baretzki goes, Lali did consider helping him, and he had his reasons. There’s no denying that Baretzki was a terrible piece of garbage, but it’s also true that if he had not helped Lali, he wouldn’t have survived. In fact, Lali and Gita’s love story wouldn’t have happened if Baretzki hadn’t helped. However, when it came to helping Baretzki, Lali rightfully told the authorities about all the horrific things he had ever done. Baretzki did kill himself. Eventually, Lali got information from Heather much later. Does a character like Baretzki deserve any sympathy? In my honest opinion, not at all. He did help Lali, but that doesn’t abscond him from the monstrosity he indulged himself into.
Another question that might come to your mind is whether Gita returned to Australia to be with Lali only for the sake of the baby. Yes, she did seem quite happy and admitted that she missed him, but she also mentioned that she didn’t want to come back originally. And from Lali’s own admission, we know for a fact that Gita’s nightmares never really ended. So, was she ever happy? I don’t think there can be a constructive answer to this question – considering everything.
The reason The Tattooist of Auschwitz went into introspection mode in the end was that they wanted to make a point. Otherwise, telling this story would have been quite pointless. It does manage to leave us with a lingering impact of dread and maybe even a sense of what something as barbaric as the Holocaust did to so many people.
