The Ballerina of Auschwitz

August 1, 2024

Gr 8 Up-At age 96, Dr. Eger tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring Holocaust survivor story in this YA version of her 2017 autobiography The Choice. In fewer than 200 pages, she takes readers through a present tense telling of how, as ethnic Jewish Hungarians in what became Czechoslovakia, her family was sent to labor and death camps. This image begins and ends her story: Eger at age 16, her sister Magda, and their mother huddled together in line as they arrive at Auschwitz and Josef Mengele sends her mother to the left, to the gas chambers. The first-person, present tense narration compels readers to live moment by moment of Eger's one-and-a-half years of horror at Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and Gunskirchen. Eger beautifully portrays liberation and returning to the world of the living. Dancing is the thread that holds her life together-the powerful gymnast and ballerina skills she learns as a young person, her dance to "The Blue Danube" at Auschwitz, and her return to dancing as she learns to live again. Eger's reflections of suffering and seeds of hope are directly and beautifully wrought; the author's note reaches out to readers who are coping with pain and suffering in this modern age. The book does not have a time line, glossary, or historical overview; readers will benefit from some knowledge of the Holocaust. VERDICT Urging readers to always choose freedom, this is an important personal telling of Holocaust suffering and survival. A solid purchase for collections with Holocaust interest and studies.-Jamie Winchell

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Starred review from August 1, 2024
Grades 8-12 *Starred Review* Eger pares down The Choice, her National Jewish Book Award-winning and New York Times best-selling combination Holocaust memoir and self-help book, into a sensitive, thought-provoking account for teens. Opening chapters recount her early years in Hungary before WWII. Considered the runt of the family, Eger, in opposition to her musically gifted older sisters, turned to dancing and gymnastics. Entering puberty, discovering first love, and dealing with family struggles are all relatable against the backdrop of antisemitism. But just as 16-year-old Eger is becoming independent, she, her oldest sister, and her parents are taken to Auschwitz. After she and her sister are separated from their parents, who are immediately killed, Eger must dance for the "Angel of Death," Josef Mengele. From here the memoir focuses on the author's two-year survival of unimaginable horrors. Despite the interminable hunger, brutality, humiliation, and physical demands on her body, she retains the spirit of dance and, above all, hope. While this young reader's edition doesn't veer toward self-help, Eger relates her miraculous rescue by American GIs and her long recovery back to health. In this latter section, she begins to process the emotional toll of her experiences, recognizing both her trauma and will to live and dance again. Impactful for all readers, especially history enthusiasts or fellow trauma survivors.

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Starred review from September 1, 2024
A memoir of one teen's experiences in Auschwitz and rebuilding in the aftermath of war, adapted from the 2017 adult edition. Edith was the youngest of three daughters in an ethnically Hungarian Jewish family in a Czechoslovakian town. She trained as a gymnast and made plans beyond high school with her sweetheart, Eric. Edith was 16 in 1944 when all appearances of normalcy were torn away, and Jewish families were crowded onto trains destined for Auschwitz. Her parents were killed on arrival at the camp. Edith and her oldest sister, Magda, labored amid horrific conditions and uncountable deaths. Dreams of reuniting with Eric sustained Edith, but her hope eventually dwindled. Over a year later, they and other prisoners were close to death when American soldiers liberated them. Recovery was a long road: Edith weighed only 70 pounds when she was rescued. Over 15,000 Jews from her hometown were deported; fewer than 100 returned and began rebuilding their lives. Eger focuses primarily on her teen years, with the exception of an epilogue detailing her return to Auschwitz nearly 40 years later, alongside her husband, B�la, whom she met when they both were sent to a TB hospital following the war. Eger's present-tense stream-of-consciousness narrative allows readers to experience the brutality of the Nazis but also the cooperation and encouragement among the inmates and the events that gave her postwar life meaning. A luminous memoir of human resilience. (author's note)(Memoir. 14-18)

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