Edith Eva Eger, writer, psychologist, and Holocaust survivor dies

Edith Eva Eger, a clinical psychologist, Holocaust survivor and writer of Hungarian descent has died. Eger became widely known with her book "The Choice". The psychologist, who lived in the United States, was 98 years old. Her passing was announced by her Hungarian publisher, Open Books.

Edith Eva Eger was born in 1927 and spent her childhood in Košice (today's Slovakia), where, as a highly talented ballerina and gymnast, she became a member of the Olympic team, only to be later removed due to anti-Jewish laws. In the spring of 1944, at the age of sixteen, she and her family were interned in the Košice ghetto, and then deported to Auschwitz in May. Josef Mengele sent her parents to the gas chamber on the day of their arrival. During her time in the camp, Edith was forced to dance for Mengele several times in order to survive. She and her sister, Magda, spent time in a number of concentration camps; until the spring of 1945, when – being on the verge of exhaustion, they were finally liberated by American soldiers from the Gunskirchen concentration camp.

After the war, she met her future husband, Béla Éger, who was also a survivor. Fleeing the communist takeover, they emigrated to the United States in 1949 and settled in Texas. Edith Eva Eger spent decades grappling with her own traumas. Entering higher education as an adult, she studied psychology; earned her bachelor’s degree and, in 1978—at the age of 51—her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Her friendship and mentee relationship with Viktor E. Frankl, a psychiatrist and fellow Holocaust survivor, played a decisive role in her professional and personal development. She practiced for decades in La Jolla, California, and taught at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

Although she was a respected therapist, it was her books—written at the encouragement of fellow psychologist Philip Zimbardo—that brought her widespread international recognition relatively late in life. In her works, she combined elements of her own life story with therapeutic case studies to explore the potential for post-traumatic growth and forgiveness. Her books have sold in remarkable numbers in numerous languages worldwide, including Hungarian. First and foremost her autobiographical book *The Choice*, published in 2017, in which she describes the horrors of the concentration camps and the decades-long spiritual journey to finding inner freedom. Two more volumes on the subject followed: "The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save Your Life" (2020) and "The Ballerina of Auschwitz" (2024).

After Edith Eva Eger’s death, her family also published a statement, in which they wrote, “She slipped away with all the grace she lived with. Like an angel returning home. She passed away in the tender care of her family and dedicated team."

When Telex interviewed the author in 2021, she said: “I think like a young person; I feel younger now, at 93, than I did at 53. At the moment, my daughter and I are writing a cookbook together featuring Hungarian dishes: Székely goulash, paprika chicken, and Slovakian strapačky, which is my daughter’s favorite. Even though I’m in America, my soul is Hungarian.”