WhatsappDr. Eger is one in a million. She is by no means not the only hero of the Holocaust. But she is perhaps the only one who, at age 90, wrote a book about her experiences and continues to inspire so many people at her mature age. Her story is beyond miraculous. But we need to learn from her that the mind truly does control who we are more than anything else.
How can one control one’s own mind when they are surrounded by evil on all sides in the midst of hell on earth? This is what the people in the Holocaust faced. Victor Frankel, in his epic book, “Man’s search for meaning,” explains that the prisoners in the Holocaust who were able to overcome the impossible situations the most were the people who had the most meaning for living. So, this amazing woman who literally “danced” in front of the devil was able to find meaning for what she did.
This allowed her to overcome the ordeal. But so much more than that. It gave her the sustenance that she and her friends so sorely needed. And then, years later, those friends saved her life when she so sorely needed them. There were millions of heroes in the Holocaust who did not survive. Some displayed amazing amounts of heroism for years, and then were killed at the end of the War. What they all had in common was that they shared the horrible fate of nearly all European Jewry in the darkest period of modern Jewish History. But what so many also shared in common is the heroism that they displayed. Dr. Eger is an inspiration for all of us today.
