Tattooist of Auschwitz author Heather Morris tells of her final moments with the real-life Holocaust survivor after he suffered a stroke - before her book sold millions of copies and is now TV drama

When Lali Sokolov was lying on his death bed after an extraordinary life, the woman who would reveal his story to millions was able to make him one final promise. 

Heather Morris vowed as the Holocaust survivor lay in hospital after suffering a stroke that she wouldn't stop trying to tell the world what happened to him. That was in 2006. 

It would be another 12 years before Morris's novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz was finally released, after she had tried and failed to get Lali's testimony made into a film.

Speaking to MailOnline as a Sky adaptation of her novel hits screens, the New Zealand-born author, 71, said: 'I was with Lali knowing he wasn't going to survive the night. 

'I knew when I said goodbye to him I wouldn't see him again. I promised him I wouldn't stop trying to tell his story.' 

That story, which has sold more than three million copies in its fictionalised form, is an incredible one of survival, hope and courage.

Lali encountered Gita Fuhrmannova - the woman who would become his wife - when she stood before him terrified.  

Amidst the evil of the Nazi killing machine, Lali - himself a Jew who had been put to work under threat of death - tattooed a number on her arm like he had done to tens of thousands of people before her. 

The pair were both already comparatively lucky, for they had not been among those who were immediately condemned to death after arriving at Auschwitz.

Around one million Jews died at the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, many of them in the gas chambers. 

The moment Lali saw Gita, he fell in love with her. Remarkably, both survived the Holocaust and went on to marry in October 1945.

They emigrated to Australia and had son Gary together, before devoting the rest of their lives to helping others.  

Lali finally told his story to Morris after Gita's death in 2003. The author spent three years meeting with him several times a week, and the pair became great friends in the process.

He had urged her to finish recording his story so he could be with Gita again.

'I was joking a bit with him at the time, here is a man who has had a stroke. Lali used to do all the talking when were together,' Morris said as she opened up for the first time about their final meeting as he lay in a hospital bed.

'I remember joking with him that I am doing more than my share of talking with him tonight. 

'I talked to him for more than two hours. I kissed him on both cheeks, the way he always kissed me. 

'I said it was ok, it was time to be with Gita, I never tried to stop telling his story. The doctor and that nurse who were in the room at the time, they both had tears streaming down their face. 

'The nurse looked at the number on his arm and said he was important wasn't he. I said he was.'

Morris kept meeting with Lali because, she said, they enjoyed being together. 

'I kept going back to him because he became my friend. He became part of my family,' she said, before adding: 'He used to joke with my late husband that "she may be your wife but she's my girlfriend."

Despite its popularity, Morris's novel did receive some criticism from historians at the Auschwitz Memorial, who claimed the book contained 'numerous errors and information inconsistent with the facts, as well as exaggerations, misinterpretations and understatements.'

Among the alleged errors highlighted was the number that Lali was depicted tattooing on Gita's arm. 

Morris recorded it as 34902, but this was disputed by scholar Wanda Witek-Malicka in a report she wrote on the book.

She said: 'We do not find any surviving documents with her personal data or relating to number 34902 issued in the women's series.'

It was pointed out that women who entered the camp in 1942 - as Gita did - were given four-digit numbers.

Years earlier, Gita herself had said in oral testimony given to the USC Shoah Foundation that her number was 4562.

However, Morris was insistent that Gita was initially tattooed by someone else, when Auschwitz's authorities were 'still experimenting with how to do it'.

She claimed that the number Lali tattooed on her - the one he recounted to Morris - was the second attempt, because the other had faded.

The author also defended herself against the book's other mistakes, including her depiction of Lali giving Gita penicillin for typhoid fever in 1943.

Ms Witek-Malicka had said this was incorrect because the medicine was not widely available until after the war.

'It had one or two factual statements that they said that wasn't correct,' Morris said.

'He could not have got penicillin, we rectified those immediately.

'We acknowledged and rectified them, where they mattered. 

'Not one holocaust survivor - and I have been privileged to meet many of them, not one of them ever said "you got it wrong".'

She added: 'I didn't see it as questioning my integrity as a writer. 

'I had these wonderful publishers and they said how do we fix this. So we fixed it. I'm a big girl, I can put my big girl pants on and said we will change these things.

'I never set out to offend anyone by writing this story. I never pretended to be something I'm not, that I'm an academic with knowledge of the Holocaust.'

For the new TV drama, the show's producers utilised the knowledge of academic historians to ensure that every detail on screen is correct.  

Lali is portrayed during his time at Auschwitz by The Little Mermaid Star Jonah Hauer-King, 28, and then as an elderly man by Taxi Driver's Harvey Keitel, 84.

Gary Sokolov admitted that he was moved to tears by Keitel's performance and said there were moments where he couldn't tell the difference between them.

He told Sky: 'He was my father on every single level. If he wasn't, I wouldn't have spent so much time in tears.'

Morris watched the show's six episodes with Mr Sokolov, who lives in Melbourne.

'He was very, very emotional watching it,' she said. 

'He held my hand and squeezed my hand for the entire six hours. He was reduced to emotional crying, a proud son on my shoulder.'

Morris's conversations with Lali are also depicted on screen. She is portrayed by Melanie Lynskey.

The show depicts his emotional turmoil as he recounts his story for the first time.

'He didn't talk about it because Gita wouldn't let him,' Morris said. 'He had survivor guilt, every single survivor I met had it.

'The ones who never spoke about it like Gita, it was terribly difficult for her. 

'The only way she could deal with it was to never ever talk about it. It was a part of their lives that ended.

'No one can blame anyone for feeling bad about the fact that they survived and others didn't.'

Lali, who was born in Slovakia in 1916, was herded off to Auschwitz in a packed cattle train in horrendous conditions in April 1942. 

Like every other prisoner who was not immediately sent off to die, he was given a number.

His - 32407 - was tattooed on his arm by a French academic named Pepan.

He was initially sent to work on the construction of new housing blocks as the camp expanded.

When Lali contracted typhoid soon after arriving at Auschwitz, he was cared for by Pepan, who set him to work as his assistant.

Lali was then made the main tattooist after Pepan was shipped out of Auschwitz.  

Because of his role, he was given extra rations and ate in an administration building. He also slept in a single room rather than in a cramped hut in horrendous conditions.

And when there were no new prisoners to tattoo he was given free time.

He would barter gems stolen from Nazi treasure troves for food and medicine for people who needed them most.

Lali also used his knowledge of half a dozen languages to obtain any intelligence he could about the camp.

After tattooing Gita, the pair exchanged letters and he found a way of smuggling her his extra rations. He also got her moved to a better work station.

In 1945, the Nazis began forcing prisoners on death marches to other camps as the Russians closed in amid Germany's ensuing defeat in the war.

It was then that Lali and Gita were separated when she was sent away.

Lali also eventually left the camp and made his way back to his home town of Krompachy in Czechoslovakia.

Incredibly, the pair were reunited when Gita stepped out in front of his horse and cart.

Lali had been on his way to Bratislava - the entry point for survivors returning home - to look for her.

The first thing he did was to ask for her hand in marriage, and she accepted.

After tying the knot, the couple emigrated to Australia in 1949 and built a textile business.

Gary, who was born in 1961, then told Morris - a friend of a friend - that his father had a story worth telling.

But when her plan to get his testimony turned into a film failed to come to fruition, Morris instead opted to write a book.

'When it started to do so well, it was a surprise for me,' she said.

'When I think about it, it is all about timing. All good stories cycle around. Holocaust stories, like the First World War and Second World War, they cycle around. 

'I think I tapped into the beginning of a new cycle. I'm so grateful that so many others have been able to tap into that cycle.'

She admitted that she 'deliberately' did not visit Auschwitz until after her book was published.

'I did not want how I saw that place 70 years later to colour how I portrayed it,' she said. 

Asked if she hopes that the TV drama may help to combat rising anti-Semitism, she said: 'It's hard to say that anybody watching this who has anti-Semitic feelings is going to change their minds.

'There's nothing you can say to them to change their mind. On the flip side there is nothing they can say to me to make me change mine.

'I want viewers to feel something. I don't care if it is love or anger. After each episode, have yourself feeling something. 

'I'm pretty sure it is going to do that. It's going to be something that stays with everybody.'

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is available to buy now and the series is out now on Sky and the streaming service NOW.

Heather Morris's latest novel, Sisters under the Rising Sun, publishes in paperback on July 4.