In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, formerly know as Ludwig Eisenberg, "was just one among countless young men stuffed into wagons designed to transport livestock." They were taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. For two and a half years, he endures this horrible prison and survives by being a Tatowierer. During that time, he meets Gita, and they fall in love. He tells his fellow prisoners, "I don't know what fate lies in store for any of us." "He thinks back to the vow he made at the beginning. To survive and to see those responsible pay."
Lale tells Gita, "How any merciful god could let this happen, I don't know." "I believe in you and me, and getting out of here, and making a life together..." Gita tells Lale that he "will honor them (those who suffered and died) by staying alive, surviving this place and telling the world what happened here."
And that is what happened. The Nazis were defeated. Lale and Gita married in 1945 and many years later had a son Gary. He asked his mother how she handled later challenges in life. "With a big smile on her face she said that when you spend years not knowing if in five minutes' time you will be dead, there is not much that you can't deal with."
In his later years, Lale finally told his story to author Heather Morris.
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