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A review by silverliningsandpages
The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eva Eger
5.0
🌿The Choice🌿
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“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
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I’m going to cut to the chase- I LOVED this book. The Choice is the memoir of Edith Eger, also fondly referred to as “the Anne Frank who didn’t die”. Edith was a Hungarian Jew, the youngest of three sisters who lived with her family in Kosice, now in modern Slovakia. In March 1944, when she was 16, she and her family were arrested and ultimately sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Upon arrival at the camp her father was herded away , the notorious doctor Joseph Mengele sent her mother to another line for a “shower”. Her parents died in gas chambers. However, this wasn’t her last encounter with Dr Mengele - as a former ballerina, she was one night forced to dance for his entertainment, winning a piece of bread to share. Edith later survived a death march through Austria, and was eventually liberated by American GIs.
Although Edith married, started a family and emigrated to America, she couldn’t escape her trauma; “I did not yet know that nightmares know no geography”. She was suffering from post-traumatic stress and survivor guilt. Having trained as a clinical psychologist, she nervously accepted an invitation to deliver a talk at one of Hitler’s former residences. But it was her return to Auschwitz that set her free. It was empowering, and it set her mind to helping others heal and “choose compassion, humour, optimism, intuition, curiosity and self-expression”.
This was a long book, but I savoured Edith’s beautiful words which seemed to jump off the page. Despite the meaningless cruelty and brutality that Edith suffered, this is a deeply enriching, life-enhancing story. Edith’s attitude to tragedy and suffering is ultimately optimistic. This book is for everyone and its wisdom can change lives for the better.
Rating 🌟 5. Thank you to @netgalley and @eburybooks the opportunity to read this book.
.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
.
I’m going to cut to the chase- I LOVED this book. The Choice is the memoir of Edith Eger, also fondly referred to as “the Anne Frank who didn’t die”. Edith was a Hungarian Jew, the youngest of three sisters who lived with her family in Kosice, now in modern Slovakia. In March 1944, when she was 16, she and her family were arrested and ultimately sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Upon arrival at the camp her father was herded away , the notorious doctor Joseph Mengele sent her mother to another line for a “shower”. Her parents died in gas chambers. However, this wasn’t her last encounter with Dr Mengele - as a former ballerina, she was one night forced to dance for his entertainment, winning a piece of bread to share. Edith later survived a death march through Austria, and was eventually liberated by American GIs.
Although Edith married, started a family and emigrated to America, she couldn’t escape her trauma; “I did not yet know that nightmares know no geography”. She was suffering from post-traumatic stress and survivor guilt. Having trained as a clinical psychologist, she nervously accepted an invitation to deliver a talk at one of Hitler’s former residences. But it was her return to Auschwitz that set her free. It was empowering, and it set her mind to helping others heal and “choose compassion, humour, optimism, intuition, curiosity and self-expression”.
This was a long book, but I savoured Edith’s beautiful words which seemed to jump off the page. Despite the meaningless cruelty and brutality that Edith suffered, this is a deeply enriching, life-enhancing story. Edith’s attitude to tragedy and suffering is ultimately optimistic. This book is for everyone and its wisdom can change lives for the better.
Rating 🌟 5. Thank you to @netgalley and @eburybooks the opportunity to read this book.