Harvey Keitel Relives Holocaust Horror

Harvey Keitel plays an elderly Slovakian Jew recalling a real-life story of romance, survival and hope in a Nazi concentration camp, where he tattooed the arms of thousands of fellow prisoners, in the trailer for Peacock and Sky’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz miniseries, which dropped Wednesday.

Keitel plays a modern-day Lali Sokolov recounting how, as a a young man in Auschwitz-Birkenau, he became a tattooist under the protection of a volatile Nazi SS officer Stefan Baretzki, played by Jonas Nay, to increase his chances of staying alive.

“Every time I open my eyes, I’m still there,” an older Lali in the trailer tells novice writer Heather Morris (played by Melanie Lynskey), the author whose book The Tattooist of Auschwitz has been adapted into the six-part series.

In July 1942, a younger Lali, played by Jonah Hauer-King, tattooed the arm of a young Slovakian woman, Gita Furman (Anna Próchniak), and the two camp prisoners instantly fall in love. “I found something there. Someone,” an older Lali says in a voiceover as the young Jews lock eyes for the first time. Under the deadly threatening eye of Baretzki, Lali and Gita commit themselves to surviving Auschwitz and spending the rest of their lives together in the limited drama series.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz will bow on Peacock in the U.S. — and on Sky Atlantic and on the streaming service NOW in the U.K. and Ireland, Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Tali Shalom-Ezer directed the drama from Synchronicity Films, with the script written by Gabbie Asher, Jacquelin Perske and Evan Placey. The executive producer credits are shared by Claire Mundell, Adrian Burns, Mark Young and Serena Thompson.