The Tattooist of Auschwitz – Season 1 Episode 6 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Episode 6

Episode 6 of The Tattooist of Auschwitz begins this finale with Lali awakening in Austria. He’s with the Russians and for the first time, he’s not awaken by the sound of drumming. He has milk, food, clean clothes and a bed. It’s heaven… at least on the surface.

Lali is a prisoner of the Russian army, and he goes around asking the women in town for them to show up at a party. Specifically, the soldiers want more women there. There are “prizes” which include cash and jewellery, apparently, and even married women are allowed to show too.

While Lali is locked up in his room, the women that he brings in are hurt and basically raped. Heather encourages Lali to take the step to embrace his past. We see this scene play out in horrific, chilling detail. We also see that Lali was kept there for weeks, and it took that long for the Russians to trust him and leave him alone.

Does Lali find his family?

With the officer distracted inside the bar, Lali manages to grab a bike and hightail it away, thanks in part to one of the women, the same one whom he encouraged to go to the party. He hands over the gear and rushes back to Slovakia. But when he returns home, it’s not the same as it was before. It’s quiet. Eerily so.

However, Lali finds an unlikely soul there. It’s his sister. She was hidden, and it was only few days after Lali left that everything went awry. It was chaos, and all of this – the sacrifice he made to protect his family – seems to have been for nothing. She’s been hiding all this time.

She hears his story about Gita and hands over the wedding ring for their mother. She smiles at her brother and tells him that this is for Gita. And with a horse and carriage, Lali takes off to Bratislava as promised.

As for Gita, she manages to make it to the nearby village but despite eating, she can’t keep anything down and she vomits it bac up. This is, of course, a side effect of hunger deprivation and despite being the most delicious thing she’s tasted, Gita struggles. The Russians have taken over their village and unfortunately, if they’re found to be harbouring the pair, they’ll be in trouble. Even worse, they’re nothing to the Russians and although they can hide in the attic, they can’t be seen or heard.

Are Lali and Gita reunited?

Gita and Hanna go through a horrific ordeal when one of the men tries to rape Hanna out in the wilderness too, but Gita plays possum and manages to stop him, smashing him over the head with a stick.

When Lali makes it to the city, he notices his old place of work abandoned and boarded up. He heads to the church though and writes a message asking for Gita, pinning it on the same noticeboard where so many others have put their faith that their note will be read.

Gita does also make it to Bratislava, where she checks over the noticeboard – the same one Lali left a note for her on – and decides to give up. However, she hears Lali outside and just like that, the pair are reunited. In fact, they soon get married too and secure their love for one another. Lali believes their best days are ahead of them, and they’ve lived their worst, as they secure their vows.

Why is Lali conflicted?

The pair wanted their happy ending and they were chasing it. However, a knock at the door one afternoon changed everything. Two policemen want to see Lali and he encourages them to come inside. It turns out they carry a request from a German law-firm who are representing an ex-SS officer. A statement for them, not against. A Nazi officer is on trial for war crimes and he’s asking for Lali’s assistance. And the name? Stefan Baretzki.

Lali explains that their life was anything but happy after the time in the camps. The horrors followed them to Australia, and between many years of nightmares and sadness, the past came to haunt them “like a sick dog”, according to Lali. Gita has been unable to heal over time, and as a result she’s not able to bear children either. Hanna though, happens to be pregnant.

This causes a rift between Lali and Gita, as Lali doesn’t know what to do to help his beloved – or how to handle the Baretzki situation. After all, Baretzki was the one who helped get them together, in a weird way, and he’s done a lot to secure the pair’s future. However, he’s also a psychotic murderous swine, so there is that too.

Gita chimes in and explains she wants to go back to Europe and see her home – and catch up with Mimi. Lali realizes he can’t fix this and decides to let her go.

Does Lali condemn or help Baretzki?

With Gita gone, Lali is left to try and confront the past. And what is the truth? After all, Baretzki said he was like a brother to him and their weird bond over time, causes Lali to do what he believes it right. He writes his letter and sends it to the German consult. So what did he write?

Well, he put in the note that Baretzki was there and Lali witnessed him murder many people. Baretzki went to prison for this testimony, where he ends up killing himself. This explains some of the guilt Lali feels right now and why he’s seeing Baretzki’s ghost haunt him. Lali explains to Heather that if it were not for Baretzki, then he would be dead. So Lali is left to live with this guilt, while condemning the officer to his death. This explains why he’s so conflicted.

In the past, Gita returns after her trip. She explains to Lali that she head to their old apartment and reminisced on their past. She almost didn’t get on the plane, given she was sick. She went to a doctor, who has told her she’s actually pregnant!

What happens to Lali and Gita?

Lali and Gita have their child, but here, in the present, Lali explains that he doesn’t want his son to go back to the camps with him. Instead, he encourages Heather to come with him by his side. She agrees to do just that, given all they’ve shared, but he never gets that far. In fact, Lali goes to lie down and passes away that afternoon, seeing a younger Gita with their son, singing lullabies together.

As the series draws to a close, there’s some lovely documentarian footage afterwards of Lali, being interviewed on-screen, and a harsh, stark reminder of just how horrific the concentration camps were.

The Episode Review

The Tattooist of Auschwitz has been a brilliant miniseries; a reminder of how cruel and awful the atrocities that took place at Auschwitz and the other camps were. It’s also a reminder about how even those who survived the ordeal of the camps, never did – not really.

Haunted by the memories of what’s happened, we finally see the end of Lali’s story, although it’s shocking to see that it took 11 years for the book to actually be published. It’s a harrowing story and understanding how this ties in with Stefan Baretzki, who asked for Lali and believed he’d help, when he actually condemned him to death, is another nail in the coffin, explaining Lali’s unresolved guilt and confliction about the past.

The series wraps up beautifully and it’s hard not to tear up when Lali lies down on his bed like that. It’s such a cruel but equally bittersweet way to wrap up his story after everything he’s been through. This has been a great miniseries though, and its definitely been well worth sitting through.