‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ Actor Nearly Quit Nazi Role

The Tattooist of Auschwitz star Jonas Nay was so disturbed by his character’s actions, he considered quitting the role.

Based on the book by Heather Morris, the NBC drama follows Auschwitz survivor Lali Sokolov (Academy Award nominee Harvey Keitel), who was tasked with tattooing identification numbers on his fellow prisoners’ arms.

The six-episode series shows both Sokolov’s life in the present day and his time at the concentration camp, where he falls for fellow-prisoner Gita (Anna Próchniak).

Nay stars as real-life Auschwitz guard Stefan Baretzki in the series, which comes to Peacock on May 2.

The German actor confessed to struggling with his character’s actions, describing Baretzki as “brainwashed” by the Nazi regime.

“It was really, really hard to find a way to connect to the real existing Stefan Baretzki,” Nay told Newsweek. “I couldn’t imagine somebody being as far away from myself.”

To prepare for the role, the 33-year-old listened to recordings of Baretzki at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, in which the former soldier was sentenced to life in prison for participating in the murders of 8,000 people.

“[There was] an audio recording of him defending himself before the Frankfurt trial, and it’s 45 minutes of him totally convinced that what he did wasn’t wrong, which is deeply disturbing to listen to,” Nay said. “You could listen to other victims testifying on the sadistic acts he’s committed in his time in Auschwitz. Survivors telling stories that I couldn’t even repeat, that are so horrible.”

The Deutschland 83 star was so anxious about taking on such a contentious role, that he contemplated backing out. However, the support of director Tali Shalom-Ezer gave him the confidence to continue.

“She was like, ‘We’re gonna get through this Jonas. We’re gonna get there together,” he said. “It’s really been kind of an atmosphere of carrying each other throughout the series.

“That was the only way I could play him. I can’t imagine any other way of shooting the series. I’m so thankful for that.”

Nay described his time portraying Baretzki as a “gray cloud,” with the actor needing “months” to recover from the intense filming experience.

“It took me some time to get this off my chest,” he said. “It took me months to feel that I could breathe deeply again.”

Along with Nay and Keitel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz features The Little Mermaid’s Jonah Hauer-King as a young Lali, while The Last of Us star Melanie Lynskey plays author and fellow New Zealander Heather Morris.