A powerful memoir of an Auschwitz survivor which shows us that hope can flower in the most unlikely places.
The Choice is the story of an Auschwitz survivor and how she moved on from the trauma of living in a concentration camp. Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz in 1944, at the tender age of 16 along with her family. This autobiography is the story of how she overcame her trauma and rebuilt her life.
Eger was a trained ballerina who was forced to dance for Josef Mengele, the SS doctor nicknamed the “Angel of Death”. She details her life at the camp, the things the women would do to keep their morales up and how they would share whatever scrap of food they got amongst themselves.
"Little dancer," Dr. Mengele says, "dance for me." But my limbs are heavy, as in a nightmare when there's danger and you can't run away.
Dr Eger was a trained ballerina who was forced to dance for Josef Mengele, the SS doctor nicknamed the “Angel of Death”. She details her life at the camp, the things the women would do to keep their morales up and how they would share whatever scrap of food they got amongst themselves. Having lost both her parents to the gas chambers upon reaching Auschwitz, Dr Eger talks of how the primary driver to her surviving the camp was her sister Magda who was along with her and how her presence gave her the strength to survive all the trials she was put through. She and her sister are eventually rescued from under a pile of corpses, with barely any life left in them. The two sisters make it back home after the war where they are reunited with their sister Klara, who had somehow managed to hide from the Nazi’s, pretending to be a novice at a convent.
What makes this book unique is how Dr Eger goes on to explain how she rebuilt her life post the way. She and her husband Bela move to the US in attempt to start over. Even though she initially faces the many trials and tribulations all immigrants go through when they start over in a new country (such as trying to get a decent job or learning English), she eventually identifies her true calling in psychology and becomes a psychologist, mending pieces of her own trauma while helping her clients. She gives herself the opportunity to heal herself in the process of helping her clients heal - be in spouses who are going through a tough time, a Vietnam veteran with PTSD or a girl with eating disorders.
Dr Eger writes,
"Maybe to heal isn’t to erase the scar, or even to make the scar. To heal is to cherish the wound."
Through her work, she finds the commonalities in our pain, and gives people tools to enable them to own their healing process.
The book is also a good reminder that there is no such thing as a “hierarchy of suffering” wherein we tend to consider one persons suffering as one of a larger or smaller magnitude than ours. If you are struggling with something, then that struggle is real - be it dealing with PTSD or eating disorders or relationship problems. We should be careful to not only trivialise others struggles but also to not undermine our own issues in comparison to others.
Even though what might draw one to this book is Dr Eger's experience at Auschwitz, it's her insights as a therapist that are likely to stay with you once you are done with this book.
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