About This Book:
In this young adult edition of the bestselling, award-winning memoir The Choice, Holocaust survivor and renowned psychologist Dr. Edith Eger shares her harrowing experiences and gives readers the gift of hope and strength.
Edie is a talented dancer and a skilled gymnast with hopes of making the Olympic team. Between her rigorous training and her struggle to find her place in a family where she’s the daughter “with brains but no looks,” Edie’s too busy to dwell on the state of the world. But life in Hungary in 1943 is dangerous for a Jewish girl.
Just as Edie falls in love for the first time, Europe collapses into war, and Edie’s family is forced onto a train bound for the Auschwitz concentration camp. Even in those darkest of moments, Edie’s beloved, Eric, kindles hope. “I’ll never forget your eyes,” he tells her through the slats of the cattle car. Auschwitz is horrifying beyond belief, yet through starvation and unthinkable terrors, dreams of Eric sustain Edie. Against all odds, Edie and her sister Magda survive, thanks to their sisterhood and sheer grit.
Edie returns home filled with grief and guilt. Survival feels more like a burden than a gift—until Edie recognizes that she has a choice. She can’t change the past, but she can choose how to live and even to love again.
*Review Contributed by Sara Perrera, Staff Reviewer*
Have you ever read a book that just emotionally destroyed you? A book that made you cry both tears of sadness and joy. The Ballerina of Auschwitz, a memoir written by Holocaust survivor Edith Eger is that book for me. The story focuses on Edith a talented dancer and gymnast who is deported to a nazi concentration camp with her family.
This story didn’t flinch away from telling about Edith’s experience at the concentration camp. It was horrifying to read about what she endured, but somehow Edith’s story also was filled with hope. Even in the dire conditions of the concentration camp, she found moments of light and the strength to survive. There is a particular scene in the book when they first arrive at the camp. The women are stripped of their clothes and their hair is shaved off. Edith’s sister Magda asks her how she looks. While thinking she looks like a mangy dog, Edith realizes Magda needs reassurance, so she tells her how beautiful her eyes are now that she can see them. “It’s the first time I see that we have a choice to pay attention to what we’ve lost or to pay attention to what we still have.” It’s these small moments throughout the book where Edith chooses to be positive in such harsh circumstances that give the reader hope.
Even after the war is over and Edith and her sister are rescued from the concentration camp, they continue to experience prejudice for being Jews. You realize their struggle is far from over, and what they experience will stay with them forever.
The Ballerina of Auschwitz should be a must-read for all teens to give them an understanding of the horrors of the Holocaust and the beauty of hope and perseverance.
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