The Choice

I found further courage to face the difficulties in life through Dr. Eger’s book, which highlighted truth, love, faith, courage, and, most importantly, true, authentic healing. 

Dr. Eger's personal account of the Holocaust was like no other. She took me on a journey from her horrendous capture and captivity to her gritty survival and ultimately to her personal and professional redemption. As a clinician, I especially loved the creative strategies she used in psychotherapy; they were insightful and inspiring. 

This incredible memoir, a truly singular book about an astonishing life, changed my view of the human capacity to survive and thrive. Early on, we see young Edith’s determination of spirit as a teenager imprisoned in Auschwitz. She makes it through to the end of the war, then struggles to build a life beyond the devastation of her unspeakable experience.

She eventually became a renowned psychologist and PTSD therapist. In particular, I greatly appreciated the unique double benefit of witnessing a harrowing account of survival followed by the survivor’s later professional and expert examination of said account–stirring, epic, and endlessly… show more.

This memoir is a gripping narrative of Eva's survival as a gifted dancer and gymnast in pre-war Hungary, the Nazi concentration camps, and her long journey toward wholeness after immigrating to the United States. 

She details the mental and interpersonal ravages of complex trauma poignantly describes her struggle to gain mental wellness in a world that contains suffering.

She is one of the world's experts on healing from trauma and it shows in her riveting descriptions of how she and her patients learned to bear the pain of great suffering while reclaiming the beauty of compassion, forgiveness, and loving relationships.

The details were different, but the outcome was the same. Dr. Eger is a Jewish Holocaust survivor; I am a woman raised in a Christian family in Virginia. She danced for Josef Mengele on the night he sent her mother to the gas chamber; I spent my youth tiptoeing around a mother whose nerves were shot before her thirtieth birthday. Dr. Eger’s mother was murdered; my mother, despite her intelligence, beauty, and talents, chose to end her life before her fiftieth birthday. Despite the differences in our stories, Dr. Eger and I have one very important thing in common. Despite… show more.

Part memoir, part self-help, part counselling session, this book is a must-read. It doesn't hide the truth, gets very dark in places, and is likely to be triggering for some, but it is written with such strength and love, it is ultimately healing. I couldn't of course relate to the author as a holocaust survivor but her story of overcoming a 'why me' guilt, letting go of perfectionism, and embracing the choice to be free spoke to me in a profound way. Every chapter has some amazing takeaways but I will leave you with this one: "to heal is to… show more.

Imagine being sent to Auschwitz at the age of sixteen and surviving. In this riveting memoir, Dr. Edith Eva Eger shares the unimaginable atrocities she endured, the suffering and survivor’s guilt that followed, and how she found healing and hope when she returned to Auschwitz many years later. It was there that she finally faced her truth: “I was not a victim. I was victimized.” Now, she helps others who have experienced loss to find not just a way forward, but a way that’s full of deep gratitude for the gifts each moment holds.

So poignant and personal, this memoir had me riveted with each chapter. Dr. Eger’s retelling of the traumas of war and violence felt so close, as though she were whispering secrets in my ear, Reminding all of us to deal with the terrible demons that cling to families for years, claiming our children, even when we do our best to protect the ones we love. 

We all need more hope in our lives. This inspiring and truly humbling book is a wonderful journey into the meaning of life, making sense of our human experience and our infinite power of resilience in the face of adversity. I felt I learned so much from Edith and I am in awe of how she managed to overcome her traumatic experience in Auschwitz and create a meaningful existence.