Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Harvey Keitel, Jonah Hauer-King star in ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz,’ a Holocaust love story coming to Peacock

The six-part series, based on a controversial bestseller of the same name, will start streaming May 2

(JTA) — The story of real Auschwitz survivor Lali Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who was forced to tattoo numbers on his fellow inmates and implausibly fell in love with a girl he was tattooing, is coming to TV on May 2.

“The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” a six-part original series based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Heather Morris, will air on Peacock in the United States. The show stars Academy Award nominee Harvey Keitel, renowned for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson, as Sokolov.

English actor Jonah Hauer-King of “The Little Mermaid” and Polish actress Anna Próchniak of “Baptiste” star as the younger versions of Sokolov and his eventual wife Gita Furman in the drama series, which is executive produced by Claire Mundel and directed by Tali Shalom-Ezer.

Morris, whose 2018 novel “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” was inspired by interviews with Sokolov before his death in 2006, also appears as a character played by Emmy Award nominee Melanie Lynskey (“The Last of Us,” “Yellowjackets”).

Harvey Keitel as Lali Sokolov seen in his apartment in Melbourne. (Martin Mlaka / Sky UK)

Despite selling over 12 million copies around the world with the tagline that it was “based on the powerful true story of love and survival,” Morris’s novel drew criticism for inauthentic portrayals of Auschwitz. A report from Wanda Witek-Malicka of the Auschwitz Memorial Research Centre pointed out several historical inaccuracies in the book, ranging from a sexual relationship between an SS commander and a Jewish prisoner to a storyline about penicillin (which was not widely available at the time) to the incorrect number tattooed on Furman’s arm. The book also changed the spelling of Sokolov’s first name from Lali to Lale; the movie has changed it back.

The creators of the Peacock series say they made efforts to authentically reproduce a love story in Auschwitz, visiting the death camp to recreate the historical location and casting Jewish actors as their stars.

“It was important that both young and old Lali were played authentically by Jewish actors who were able to deliver the part with nuance, empathy, compassion, and the complexity that we need from that character,” said Shalom-Ezer.

The series will air on Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.