Recorded April 6, 2021.
Holocaust survivor, internationally acclaimed psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Edith Eger shares her powerful life story. At the age of sixteen, Edith, a trained ballet dancer and gymnast, was forcibly taken from her home in Hungary and sent in a cattle train to Auschwitz with her parents and one of her two sisters. Just hours after her parents were sent to their death in the gas chamber, Nazi officer Dr. Josef Mengele – also known as the “Angel of Death” – forced Edie to dance for his amusement. After enduring months of indescribable hardship and suffering, she was moved to Austria where on May 4, 1945 an American soldier noticed her hand moving slightly in a pile of dead bodies and quickly got her medical help. After the war, Edith moved to Czechoslovakia where she met her future husband. In 1949 they moved to the United States and in 1969, at age 42, she received her degree in Psychology from the University of Texas and then earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology nine years later. Dr. Eger has since written several books – including her international bestseller, The Choice: Embrace the Possible which was published when she was 90 and her most recent book The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save Your Life. Today, she has a clinical practice in La Jolla, California and also holds a faculty appointment at the University of California, San Diego.
As one of the last remaining Holocaust survivors, Dr. Edith Eger shares with us her unimaginable ordeal and explains why, despite everything she endured, she does not consider herself a victim. She talks about why she didn’t share her story until later in life – only picking up the pen at age 90 to write it all down in her powerful memoir, The Choice: Embrace the Possible. A pioneer in the field of psychology, Dr. Eger explains how she turned her greatest pain into a powerful tool to help others heal from their own trauma. As she talks about why she believes our painful experiences are not a liability but a gift, she shares how we can turn our own challenges into opportunities and realize what we never thought possible.
