Fortunately for Eger, she survived and eventually made her way to America to start a new life. She became a psychologist, drawing on her own experiences to help her patients work through issues. She married an accountant and raised three children with him. After becoming a grandfather, her husband quipped, “Three generations—that’s the best revenge [on] Hitler.”
Her story has been likened to another equally famous Shoah (Holocaust) memoir: Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning.” Together, these two works offer a potent understanding of the human psyche when faced with seemingly insurmountable situations. Yet the two memoirs present different perspectives.
A Grand Jeté in Her Mind
Edie Elefánt, a Hungarian Jew, was born in the town of Kassa, in what was then Czechoslovakia.As the youngest of three sisters, Edie always lived in the shadow of her musically talented older sisters: Magda the pianist and Klara the violin prodigy. Although Edie was considered the brains of the family, her mother favored the older girls.
Edie found her escape through ballet. When she danced, she could be whatever she wanted to be. Edie, also a gymnast, even started training for the Olympic team, until her coach sadly told her that she would have to give up her spot. It was 1940, a year after Hitler invaded Poland.
Face to Face With Death
“The Ballerina of Auschwitz” tells how the day finally comes. Edie’s family is sent to Auschwitz. Only Klara, who is in Budapest at the time, is not taken. In the death camp, they are separated by gender and then by age. Edie’s mother ends up in a separate line where those older than 40 or younger than 14 are sent to their deaths. Edie is left alone with her oldest sister Magda.
Edie eventually comes face-to-face with her mother’s murderer, the Angel of Death himself: Dr. Josef Mengele. He is searching the barracks for talented individuals to provide his entertainment. Edie, identified as a ballerina, is ordered to dance. A camp orchestra, prearranged by Mengele, plays “The Blue Danube” waltz. Edie finds herself dancing for Mengele. She knows she is performing before her executioner; she is dancing for her survival.
Her ability to keep her composure and dignity as she performs for a killer’s pleasure is mind-boggling. But as she bravely goes through her routine, she is reminded of what her mother once said to her: “No one can take away from you what you’ve put in your own mind.” And with that comes a revelation: She realizes that Mengele is a more pitiful creature than she is. “I am free in my mind, which he can never be,” Edie says to herself. “He will always have to live with what he’s done.” Edie then says a silent prayer—not really for herself, but for Mengele.
Insights Into True Faith
As Edie, Magda, and the rest of the young women learn to survive at camp, readers are exposed to more than the horrors of prison life and the subhuman conditions of the camps. They are also reminded that it’s easy to wallow in grief and despair. There are reports of young people throwing themselves at the electric fence for a quick end; they’ve lost all hope and faith.“I can’t believe in a God who would let this happen” is the general consensus among the girls. But Edie believes otherwise. She thinks, “It isn’t God who is killing us in gas chambers, in ditches, on cliff sides. ... God doesn’t run the death camps.”
A (Mostly) YA Story
The end of “The Ballerina of Auschwitz” turns from the camps to what happens to Edie and her sister immediately after being rescued. Though not easy, the same inner strength and hope that saw Edie through her time at Auschwitz continues to help her navigate her new life.In her book’s introduction, she writes that she hopes readers learn from her experience and think, “If she can do it, so can I!” She reiterates, “I offer you this book so that you can transcend victimhood and choose to dance through life. ... I give you my story to empower you.”
It’s a counterargument to the victim culture pervasive among today’s youth and as good a reason as any for young people to grab a copy of this book. It’s history told and actually lived, making her story that much more powerful.
The publishers have touted the book as the YA edition of “The Choice,” recommending it for children ages 12 and up. Parents may need to read the book before passing it down to younger children. Certain scenes may be too disturbing for innocent minds, especially if they’re not used to reading about such horrors. In addition, this is a coming-of-age book, and although the camps weren’t ideal places to learn about the birds and the bees, that’s exactly what Edie had to do.
On the whole, Eger’s memoir shows the resilience of the human mind and spirit, the hopefulness that propels one to help others as well as oneself, and the power of love to transcend hate.
