Book Review: ‘The Gift’ by Edith Eger
Edith Eger is a survivor of Auschwitz. Taken there by the Nazis with her parents when she was 16, separated shortly after arriving at the death camp, her parents were murdered almost immediately.
The sub-title is: A Survivor’s Journey to Freedom
Her story is not only beyond heroic it carries authority; she knows what she is talking about. If anyone embodies the overworked phrase ‘lived experience’ she does.
The Gift was first published in 2020 when Edith was 92. Her previous book The Choice was published in 2017, so she hasn’t rushed to the printing press. The contents of The Gift are like a fine wine or whisky distilled and matured over many decades.
Hope is a matter of life and death
Using her own experience of escaping the mental trap of ‘victimhood’, she relates the stories of others facing suffering and various forms of PTSD and how her discoveries enable them to find freedom. She is a qualified psychologist and trained counsellor for PTSD sufferers.
Some quotes to whet the appetite:
‘My first night in Auschwitz, I was forced to dance for SS officer Josef Mengele, known as the Angel of Death…I stood on the concrete floor…frozen with fear…I closed my eyes and retreated to an inner world. In my mind, I was no longer imprisoned in a death camp, cold and hungry…I was on stage of a Budapest opera house, dancing the role of Juliet in Tchaikovsky’s ballet…’
The second chapter is titled: No Prozac at Auschwitz
‘Hope is a matter of life and death. I knew a young woman in Auschwitz who became certain the camp would be liberated by Christmas…but then Christmas came and went…the day after my friend was dead. Hope had kept her going. When her hope died, she did, too.’
‘The key to maintaining your freedom during a conflict is to hold your truth while also relinquishing the need for power and control’
There isn’t the space in a review to list all the people and their traumas that Edith uses to illustrate what she has discovered as the necessary ingredients to find true freedom, but, as she proposes: ‘Suffering is universal. But victimhood is optional.’
Is it a self-help book? Yes. Is it focussing on the ‘self’ and relying on human resources to overcome trauma? Largely, yes. Though, in a typically Jewish way, it is clear that Edith retains belief in God.
In the remarkable chapter ‘The Nazi in You’ where she explores our tendency to slip into judgement, she says: ‘Even a Nazi can be a messenger of God…this (Nazi guard) was my teacher, guiding me to the choice I always have to replace judgement with compassion…to practice love’
Did I agree with everything in the book? I’m not sure that is the right question
Did I agree with everything in the book? I’m not sure that is the right question. I defy anyone who reads this book not to come away with the impression that Edith has discovered real pearls of wisdom to be shared widely.
But, not to dodge the question. No. I’m not sure I would advocate asking someone to sit on top of you whilst you erupt into an apparently therapeutic primal scream as repeatable practice. But I feel as if I am nitpicking.
Is this an enjoyable read? O dear! If you found Ghandi, or The King’s Speech, or My Left Foot enjoyable, then yes, it is enjoyable. It’s not Mission Impossible or Jane Eyre type of enjoyable, but it is engaging, enriching, and a good book to refer to and keep on the bookshelf.