Auschwitz survivor brings her story to Spokane

Dr. Edith Eger has never forgotten the words her mother spoke during World War II as they rode in a cattle car headed for Auschwitz.

“We don’t know where we’re going and what will happen,” her mother said. “Just remember: No one can take away from you what you put in your own mind.”

I recently talked over the phone with Eger, who will travel to Spokane to speak at the Spokane City Forum and at Whitworth College this week. It was as though a history book opened on my desk, and this 78-year-old former ballet dancer with the strong Hungarian accent leaped out.

Eger, a clinical psychologist in La Jolla, Calif., believes her mother was right: It was her inner strength that allowed this Jewish teenager to not only forgive her Nazi prison guards but also survive the concentration camp where both of her parents were killed.

On Friday night she’ll share the wisdom she found at Auschwitz in a special presentation at Whitworth College designed for war veterans and active-duty military personnel. It will be called “Reconciling With My Enemy.”

As a teenager in Auschwitz, Eger intuitively grasped an ancient spiritual truth. She vividly remembers forgiving her guards and praying for them. She decided they were the real prisoners.

“I think that was a crucial time for me, not to allow them to murder my spirits,” she says.

As the months passed at Auschwitz, she kept listening to her inner voice.

” ‘If I can survive today,’ ” she told herself, ” ‘then I’ll be free tomorrow.’ I waited and waited for tomorrow.”

Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi physician who was nicknamed the Angel of Death, discovered Eger had trained as a ballet dancer and gymnast. More than once, he asked her to dance for him.

Each time, she performed filled with fear. But she relied on her powerful imagination to take her to a better world.

“When I danced for Dr. Mengele, I remember I closed my eyes, and I pretended I was at the Budapest Opera dancing to ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ” she says.

At the end of the war, the Nazis discarded her in an Austrian forest. She was barely alive when an American soldier found her among the dead. Emaciated and near death herself, she suffered with typhoid fever and a broken back.

On Friday, she intends to tell Spokane veterans just how grateful she remains. Americans fed her carefully and wrapped her back in a cast. Eventually she healed and came to the United States where she later studied psychology.

It wasn’t until decades later, when she was treating an embittered Vietnam veteran, that she realized she needed to finally begin speaking about her experience at Auschwitz.

“I was sitting there (listening to him),” she remembers, “and I am thinking, ‘I really can not take this person further than I have gone myself.’ “

That moment inspired her to return to Auschwitz. There she was finally able to reclaim her innocence and forgive herself for living when so many others had died.

Today, she guides others along similar, though usually internal, journeys.

She doesn’t recommend forgiving one’s enemies too quickly. First, she advises people to experience their anger and grief without medicating the pain with alcohol, cigarettes or food. Eventually, those powerful emotions can transform into forgiveness.

“Low-level, chronic anger can hold you prisoner,” she says. “I do it for me because I want to have joy and passion in life.”

Eger understands post-traumatic stress syndrome, because she still overreacts when she hears sirens wail and imagines bombs falling. She understands lasting grief. One day, years after her liberation, she took her granddaughter dress shopping before a dance. She came home in tears, finally mourning for the graceful girl within who never got to go to a school dance.

But she lives her life with energy and love. She attends yoga and Pilates classes. She still can perform a high-kick when she’s in the mood. And she’s the most powerful example of the importance of forgiveness I’ve ever met.

She calls herself a very young, 78-year-old spirit. Today a sculpture of a ballet dancer illustrates her Web site, dredie.com.

“I am extremely grateful that I am given a second chance in life,” she says. “Every moment is very precious.”