Dr Edith Eger In My Own Words Recording — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:21all right so it's posting now
- 0:25and i'm going to record here as a backup
- 0:31i'm gonna let everyone in and we'll
- 0:33begin in just a moment as soon as
- 0:34everyone's in the room
- 0:50good morning there's just a few more
- 0:51people coming in the room we'll begin in
- 0:53just a moment
- 1:01well hello everyone my name is rachel
- 1:04lucy hitt
- 1:05and on behalf of the holocaust memorial
- 1:07resource and education
- 1:09center of florida i'm very pleased to
- 1:11welcome you here for another session of
- 1:13in my own words
- 1:15um today we are very very um
- 1:18pleased to share some special guests
- 1:20with you we have
- 1:21tali dippold as as well as dr
- 1:25edith eager here with us um i'll be
- 1:28turning the floor over to them in just a
- 1:30moment
- 1:30but i wanted to make sure that you all
- 1:32know um just a couple things we will be
- 1:35recording today's session as always
- 1:38so immediately after the conclusion of
- 1:41the event
- 1:42we will get working on making sure that
- 1:44we get it up on our website
- 1:46so if there's any pieces that you miss
- 1:48or you'd like to share this program with
- 1:50someone that wasn't able to be here
- 1:52today
- 1:52and we encourage you to share that with
- 1:54them um
- 1:56in addition just for sound quality for
- 1:59everyone's uh
- 2:00listening um enjoyment we are
- 2:03muting everyone's session but
- 2:06we highly encourage if you have any
- 2:08questions throughout the entire program
- 2:11please feel free to type them into the
- 2:13chat box
- 2:14and we will be monitoring them and
- 2:16towards the end of the
- 2:18the session we're going to get to as
- 2:19many questions as possible
- 2:22so with that i'm actually going to
- 2:23introduce tally to you who will then
- 2:26introduce dr eager tally dippold is the
- 2:29associate director
- 2:31of the stan greenspun center for peace
- 2:33and social justice
- 2:35at queen's university of charlotte she
- 2:38served as the executive director of the
- 2:40levine
- 2:41judaic library and resource center at
- 2:43shalom park
- 2:45she graduated laude with a bs in
- 2:48hospitality management from the
- 2:49university of new hampshire
- 2:51and graduated as class valedictorian
- 2:54with an ms
- 2:54in genocide and holocaust studies from
- 2:57gratz college
- 2:59tally decided to take her passion for
- 3:00storytelling customer service
- 3:03and empathy and pursue her lifelong
- 3:05passion for holocaust
- 3:07and human rights education during the
- 3:10past decade she has traveled extensively
- 3:12throughout eastern europe
- 3:13and participated in numerous educational
- 3:16opportunities
- 3:17including the ushmm belfor conference
- 3:20the holocaust and jewish resistance
- 3:23teacher program
- 3:24as well as the hillel international
- 3:26professionals heritage study tour in
- 3:28poland
- 3:30she serves as an active member of the
- 3:32north carolina council on holocaust
- 3:34since
- 3:352013 and serves on the executive board
- 3:38of the association of holocaust
- 3:39organizations
- 3:40since january of 2019. tally also
- 3:44co-teaches a college class
- 3:48on preserving memory in the digital age
- 3:50that culminates in a two-week study tour
- 3:52in poland
- 3:53where she leads a group in cemetery
- 3:55restoration work
- 3:57she considers herself a 3g as
- 4:00all four of her grandparents are
- 4:02holocaust survivors
- 4:04talia's a native of jerusalem enjoys
- 4:07traveling
- 4:08and sharing her stories tally i'm
- 4:10pleased to pass it over to you
- 4:13thank you so much rachel i'm thrilled to
- 4:15be here
- 4:16and i am thrilled to introduce the
- 4:18reason that we are all here to get to
- 4:20spend some time
- 4:21with dr edith eva eager first a huge
- 4:25thank you to the holocaust memorial
- 4:27resource
- 4:28and education center of florida and
- 4:30thank you to rachel
- 4:31stevens serena and lisa we are thrilled
- 4:34to join you today
- 4:35so moving on to dr edith eva ever
- 4:40edith is a native of hungary she was
- 4:43just a teenager
- 4:44in 1944 when she experienced one of the
- 4:47worst evils the human race has ever
- 4:50known
- 4:51as a jew living in nazi-occupied eastern
- 4:53europe
- 4:54she and her family were sent to
- 4:56auschwitz
- 4:57it was her bravery and her uh
- 5:01resilience that kept her and her sister
- 5:03alive
- 5:05towards the end of the war she was moved
- 5:06to austria and on may 4th
- 5:091945 she was liberated
- 5:14after the war edith moved to
- 5:16czechoslovakia where she met the man
- 5:18that she would marry
- 5:20and in 1949 she immigrated to
- 5:23america she received numerous degrees
- 5:26in 1969 in psychology from the
- 5:29university of texas
- 5:30el paso and she pursued her doctoral
- 5:33internship at the william beaumont army
- 5:35medical center
- 5:36at fort lewis texas she's a prolific
- 5:40author i have one of her books right
- 5:42behind me in my background
- 5:44she has an incredible new book out that
- 5:46i highly recommend
- 5:48that we'll discuss later and
- 5:51she's a she has a clinical practice in
- 5:53la jolla california where she joins us
- 5:55today
- 5:56and she holds a faculty appointment at
- 5:58the university of california
- 5:59san diego she's appeared on numerous
- 6:02television programs cnn
- 6:04the oprah winfrey show and she was the
- 6:07primary subject
- 6:08of a holocaust documentary that appeared
- 6:10on dutch
- 6:11national television i am extremely
- 6:14fortunate that i've had the opportunity
- 6:16to spend time with her
- 6:18last year and early this year and the
- 6:21lessons that i learned from edie will
- 6:23stay with me
- 6:24forever and a quick shameless plug that
- 6:27in
- 6:27april of 2021 we will be releasing
- 6:30a documentary that shares many of her
- 6:34stories with the world and without
- 6:35further ado i would love to
- 6:37welcome dr edith eva eager
- 6:42thank you so so much as you were
- 6:46introducing me it reminded me that
- 6:49i was on the advisory committee for
- 6:52the veterans administration and as such
- 6:56i would go to washington
- 6:58and every morning we would pass the
- 7:00holocaust museum
- 7:02and i said to myself i've been there
- 7:04done that
- 7:05but after six years i arrived in
- 7:09on sunday and i thought okay well maybe
- 7:12it's time
- 7:13so i went to the holocaust museum i
- 7:15don't know if you've been there
- 7:17but they they take you to the fourth
- 7:20floor
- 7:21and i was looking for the gis because i
- 7:24was liberated
- 7:26by the 71st infantry and you know what i
- 7:29found
- 7:30a man who liberated me
- 7:34uh recently recently just now
- 7:38on 60 minutes and
- 7:41and so we have a wonderful relationship
- 7:44and
- 7:44he was 18 and i was 17 when we were
- 7:48liberated
- 7:49so i uh i like to also tell you
- 7:53that it's very important
- 7:56especially when i speak to the military
- 7:59and the churches as well that
- 8:03unfortunately genocide is still
- 8:06with us as we speak but never
- 8:10in the history of mankind such a
- 8:13scientific
- 8:14and systematic annihilation of people
- 8:17existed
- 8:18when 15 highly educated people
- 8:22that comes from highly educated people i
- 8:24must say that
- 8:26because i'm very interested what
- 8:29teachers are teaching
- 8:31not what to think but how to think
- 8:34and to question authority i like
- 8:37young people and i want to be a good
- 8:39role model to them
- 8:41so what happened that after one day
- 8:45they celebrated they can put 30
- 8:49000 jewish people into the oven in one
- 8:52day and i am part of that final
- 8:56solution of eichmann
- 8:59so just that for the introduction
- 9:02and yes i was 16 years old i was
- 9:05in love my boyfriend and i were going to
- 9:09go to palestine
- 9:11and we belong to the bataar and we're
- 9:14gonna go
- 9:14and fight and we're gonna go to israel
- 9:18and we had this enthusiasm we had
- 9:21meaning
- 9:22in our lives unfortunately he was killed
- 9:25a day
- 9:26before liberation so i'm 93 years old i
- 9:30have three children
- 9:32five grandchildren and seven great
- 9:34grandsons
- 9:36and that's my best revenge to hitler
- 9:39that was beautiful edie and i will
- 9:41mention that the
- 9:43um liberator who you recently met will
- 9:46also be part of the documentaries you'll
- 9:48have a chance to see edie interact with
- 9:50uh with the liberator which is
- 9:52remarkable so we want to focus
- 9:54on the current day because edie always
- 9:57looks forward but for a moment i'd love
- 9:59to take a lens
- 10:00looking backwards and i'd love for you
- 10:02to share a little bit
- 10:04about your childhood in hungary your
- 10:06parents and siblings
- 10:08and then how things changed rapidly
- 10:12in your life at that young age
- 10:15i have this disbelief
- 10:19feeling or faith that maybe god
- 10:23makes a decision about the kind of
- 10:26life we're going to be put here into
- 10:29this world for it's kind of planting a
- 10:33seed
- 10:34and then how i will watch it grow that's
- 10:37why i tell people
- 10:38are you a good mommy to you because just
- 10:41how frog is self-care you know that
- 10:44you've got to really see everything
- 10:46begins with you we're born alone we die
- 10:49and
- 10:50there's something in between birth and
- 10:52that called
- 10:53life and that do you live a lifestyle
- 10:56that means
- 10:57you get up in the morning you look in
- 10:59the mirror you honor yourself
- 11:02and then and you decide the kind of day
- 11:05that you will have because what you
- 11:07think
- 11:08you create so i was born into a very
- 11:12talented family
- 11:13my parents had two beautiful girls and
- 11:16of course i
- 11:17wanted a son and i came along
- 11:21and i think god put me in that family
- 11:25because my two sisters blindfolded me
- 11:28when they took me for a walk because i
- 11:31became
- 11:32cross-side when i was three years old
- 11:35my mother looked at me very seriously
- 11:38and said
- 11:38i quote i'm glad that you have brains
- 11:42because you have no looks
- 11:44so i tell i get the reason i'm telling
- 11:47you that i'm not angry at my mom
- 11:50but we do carry with us sometimes the
- 11:52message is
- 11:53that we we received in our
- 11:56childhood and then believe what we
- 11:58learned
- 12:00um you can rewrite your script you know
- 12:03and uh i am telling you my mom
- 12:07gave me an opportunity to become a very
- 12:10highly and very educated teenager i have
- 12:14my own book club
- 12:16and here i am now dr edith eva eager
- 12:20at the university of
- 12:23school i i
- 12:27now guide the residents
- 12:31these are 30 residents and the subject
- 12:34is
- 12:35now dying and
- 12:39and i think we die the way we live
- 12:42and it's very good this time to be
- 12:45interested
- 12:46more in loving than being loved
- 12:51and so i hope that my talk today will
- 12:54give you an opportunity to give
- 12:56to the claim you would in a sense as i
- 13:00did when i returned to auschwitz
- 13:02tell us a little bit edie about your
- 13:04mother we'd love to hear about your
- 13:06mother and your sisters
- 13:07and the process that that unfortunately
- 13:10changed
- 13:10your existence at that time
- 13:14my mother helped me to read going with
- 13:16the wind
- 13:18so today i'm going to tell you are you a
- 13:22perfectionist
- 13:23and if you are you're going to
- 13:25procrastinate
- 13:27and it reminds me of
- 13:31in going with the wind when she said
- 13:34uh
- 13:38you know it's the war that and people
- 13:41are killing each other
- 13:43and she says i'll think about it
- 13:46tomorrow
- 13:48so if you procrastinate
- 13:51chances are you want to look at whether
- 13:53you are the perfectionist
- 13:55that means you have to do everything
- 13:57just right
- 13:58and my granddaughter did that and she
- 14:01was in a very
- 14:02special class when the iq started at 145
- 14:06and then she was erasing everything
- 14:11a million times and the teacher called
- 14:14her
- 14:14while that little red caboose
- 14:17and so she was ready to leave the class
- 14:21because she didn't think that she was
- 14:26able to cut the mustard in this class
- 14:30and this is the first time i told
- 14:34my precious lindsay about auschwitz
- 14:37and what i have discovered and not to
- 14:40allow a teacher
- 14:42to define who she was that she's
- 14:44beautiful
- 14:45so when she went to high school
- 14:48and was time to write for colleges
- 14:51she wrote her autobiography and the
- 14:54title was
- 14:56when the engine be and then when the
- 15:00uh caboose became an engine
- 15:04and so i i love to work with young
- 15:07people
- 15:08they are the future and i keep telling
- 15:11them that they
- 15:12are the the ambassadors for peace
- 15:17and so my mom was
- 15:21teaching me a lot uh she took me to the
- 15:25opera
- 15:26and uh in the kettle car
- 15:29she hugged me and she said
- 15:32and i quote her when especially speak to
- 15:35the children
- 15:37she said honey we don't know where we're
- 15:39going
- 15:40we don't know what's going to happen
- 15:42just remember
- 15:44no one can take away from you what you
- 15:46put here in your own mind
- 15:48and that's exactly what happened
- 15:51everything was taken away from me
- 15:53except i had my sister and i had my mind
- 15:58magda my father was a tailor
- 16:02who became a couturier and she looked at
- 16:06me
- 16:06and said when you grow up you're going
- 16:10to be the best dressed kid in town
- 16:13and guess what i am
- 16:19yes i am i am i am
- 16:22you know the dress that i took to
- 16:25auschwitz with me
- 16:27i have a picture of it it had two bows
- 16:31on it and then it was time for dr
- 16:35mengele to go to the left and go to the
- 16:38right
- 16:39i know he took a little while to watch
- 16:42my pose
- 16:43and i always wondered is this that maybe
- 16:46he decided that
- 16:48maybe maybe i just sent here to leave i
- 16:51don't know
- 16:52i don't know but i've been thinking a
- 16:55great deal
- 16:56about how can i tell people
- 17:00about not recovery but discovery
- 17:04tell us about your discovery at
- 17:06auschwitz what happened when you arrived
- 17:08there and who you were with
- 17:10and then the discoveries that you made
- 17:11during your time there
- 17:13i i since i'm a teacher you know i study
- 17:16a
- 17:17and han selig got the nobel prize
- 17:22about the stress studies that anything
- 17:25stressful that happens to us
- 17:28we have two automatic responses be there
- 17:30fight or flee
- 17:32when i arrived in the other side called
- 17:35viet canal
- 17:40it didn't work because if you touch the
- 17:43guards you were shot and many many girls
- 17:47were shot right in front of me
- 17:50so to fight it didn't work to flee
- 17:53didn't work either because if you
- 17:55touched the ward wires
- 17:56you were electrocuted and yes i saw the
- 18:00bodies so what i'm bringing to you today
- 18:05to find out actually what my ballet
- 18:09master told me that god built me in such
- 18:13a
- 18:14magnificent way he said to me all
- 18:17ecstasy
- 18:18comes from within you and i thought
- 18:21what is that word i never understood
- 18:24that word
- 18:25but i discovered that when nothing comes
- 18:28from the outside
- 18:29you discover your inner resources
- 18:32and the more you suffer
- 18:36the stronger you become
- 18:39and that's what i bring you to be able
- 18:42to
- 18:43think about your thinking and pay
- 18:46attention
- 18:47what you're paying attention to and this
- 18:50is december this
- 18:51is the time uh to make a plan
- 18:55what you're gonna take with you for next
- 18:57year what you're gonna leave behind
- 19:00jewish people have a wonderful way to
- 19:03really celebrate life by knowing
- 19:07that our ancestors didn't have it as
- 19:10good as we did
- 19:13and they never gave up i carried that
- 19:16blood
- 19:17i carried that blood especially in young
- 19:20people
- 19:21to tell them look at your birth
- 19:23certificate
- 19:24life is not easy there is no guarantee
- 19:27there
- 19:27is no certainty that is probability
- 19:33thank you how long were you in the
- 19:35birkenau camp
- 19:37and during that time what are some of
- 19:38the personal lessons that you took
- 19:40from that period i
- 19:44i think what was unfortunately
- 19:48that we experienced today too that we
- 19:51didn't know what's going to happen
- 19:53next when i took a shower
- 19:57when i took a shower we didn't know
- 20:00whether
- 20:00uh water is it's gonna come out or gas
- 20:04four o'clock in the morning we stood and
- 20:07uh
- 20:08and um and um
- 20:11we didn't know what's going to happen
- 20:14today
- 20:15my sister meg there was the pretty one
- 20:17in the family
- 20:19my sister clara was the child prodigy
- 20:22many people didn't even know i existed
- 20:26so when we're completely shaven my
- 20:29beautiful magda looked at me and said
- 20:33how do i look hungarian women are very
- 20:37vain i want you to know that too
- 20:39so i had a choice then i like to bring
- 20:42the bed and then
- 20:43to the here and now because anything i
- 20:46say i lived it so
- 20:49i had a choice as you had now whether
- 20:52you pay attention what you lost
- 20:54or what is still there
- 20:59so magda was there with the ball head
- 21:02and i told her i realized i am hermit
- 21:07i said to her mother you have beautiful
- 21:09eyes
- 21:10and you know what i did see it when you
- 21:12had your hair all over the place
- 21:15so today i asked people if you say
- 21:17anything to anyone
- 21:19ask yourselves which people are very
- 21:21good at talking to themselves
- 21:23uh ask yourself
- 21:26is it kind is it really important is it
- 21:30necessary
- 21:32because god gave us two ears and one
- 21:35mouth
- 21:36so we can listen more and talk less
- 21:41and so that's how we entered our shreds
- 21:45can you tell us about the in the
- 21:48interaction with
- 21:49dr mengele i was just going to tell you
- 21:52that
- 21:53he came to the barracks and wanted to
- 21:55know
- 21:56who can entertain him and the girls who
- 21:59knew me well
- 22:01i was the one who danced the hungarian
- 22:04shardash for the president who came 40
- 22:09so they just drew me in front of him and
- 22:12he says dance for me
- 22:15and i closed my eyes
- 22:18and i pretended that the music was
- 22:20tchaikovsky
- 22:21and i was dancing the romaine juliet at
- 22:24the budapest opera
- 22:26house i can still picture myself now and
- 22:29i knew the routine
- 22:30and i start with a high kick i can still
- 22:33do the high kick for you
- 22:35i start with a high kick and i
- 22:38go up with my left foot and i go down
- 22:41to a split right away you know and he
- 22:44just was
- 22:46very very taken by the way
- 22:50i was dancing and i was dancing for my
- 22:53life
- 22:55and so i was begging guys banging one
- 22:58god please
- 22:59don't don't be choose me to be the next
- 23:02one
- 23:03because he was choosing who to take to
- 23:05the gas chamber
- 23:07and so you never knew what's going to
- 23:09happen
- 23:10next so instead of fight or flee
- 23:13we had to learn how to accept
- 23:17and and and and i said to myself if i
- 23:22survived today
- 23:23then tomorrow i'll be free i'm gonna
- 23:26meet my boyfriend and
- 23:30i'm going to meet my boyfriend and i'm
- 23:32going to show him
- 23:34because he told me i have beautiful eyes
- 23:36and i have beautiful hands
- 23:39and dr michael when i was done he gave
- 23:42me a piece of bread
- 23:45now i had a choice then to get the bread
- 23:48and and garble it up
- 23:51but you know what thank god i climbed up
- 23:54i was on the top
- 23:55and i shared my bread and all i can tell
- 23:59you when i was in a death march
- 24:02going from uh from
- 24:05uh in austria um mud house
- 24:08from mount house and to gunt kirchen
- 24:11when you stopped you were
- 24:12shot i revisited that place every place
- 24:16including auschwitz and uh
- 24:19and i was about to stop
- 24:22and you know the girls that i shared the
- 24:24bread with
- 24:26they came and they formed a chat with
- 24:28their
- 24:29arms i'm gonna show it to you and they
- 24:32carried me
- 24:33so i wouldn't die all we had was each
- 24:36other
- 24:37then and all we have is each other now
- 24:45beautiful thank you can you share a
- 24:47little bit about the liberation you
- 24:48mentioned the death march
- 24:51tell us a little bit about liberation
- 24:55yes my liberation
- 24:58has surely uh when i was an oprah
- 25:03um and she asked me
- 25:07and i said you know i was among the dead
- 25:10and somehow i felt a hand
- 25:14somebody is is touching my hand
- 25:17and i looked up and i saw a big lip
- 25:22and i never saw a man of color
- 25:25so she looked up too and she said
- 25:29was he black yes
- 25:34and then i saw tears in the eye and
- 25:37eminem's in the hand
- 25:39today when i go to schools they give me
- 25:43a lot of
- 25:44m m's my closet is filled
- 25:47with eminem's don't send me eminem's
- 25:50please
- 25:52and and that's how i was liberated what
- 25:56is important
- 25:58as a psychologist i tell you
- 26:03that we were liberated
- 26:07and i studied with eric from i always
- 26:11went to the originals
- 26:13and he has a wonderful book escape from
- 26:16freedom
- 26:18see when you're free you're responsible
- 26:23and we were free and we would go through
- 26:26the gate
- 26:28i didn't because i was too weak but i
- 26:31was observing
- 26:33people coming back and sitting down
- 26:37and this is dr seligman's literature and
- 26:41positive psychology
- 26:43that is called the learned helplessness
- 26:47and when i was helping wedded wives
- 26:50to build transitional living centers
- 26:53this is what i found out that the
- 26:55husband brainwashes his wife
- 26:58that without him she is nothing and she
- 27:01believes it
- 27:04so he beats her she leaves and anywhere
- 27:08from seven
- 27:08to 15 times she keeps coming back
- 27:13so you have to question authority
- 27:16rather than ever blindly adhere to
- 27:19authority ahmadi jidad said
- 27:23that the holocaust did not exist
- 27:28i don't think he read plato
- 27:33and plato said remember i told you i was
- 27:36a very early teenager
- 27:38i read plato and he said you have to
- 27:41think of a lie
- 27:43and it has to be a big one and then you
- 27:46repeat it
- 27:46repeat it until people believe it
- 27:50question authority are bang young people
- 27:55rather than ever blindly adhering to
- 28:00authority
- 28:02there's a book by adorno that's called
- 28:05the authoritarian personality
- 28:08and he talks about the california f
- 28:11scale
- 28:12f stands for fascist and he believed
- 28:15that small town usa
- 28:17is right for fascism because they
- 28:20blindly adhere
- 28:22to authority so our biggest enemy
- 28:26is really very important
- 28:29to um to have
- 28:34a way of thinking that you blindly
- 28:37adhere to authority
- 28:39rather than question authority
- 28:44edith i wanted to ask you about your you
- 28:47mentioned that you returned
- 28:48back to the various locations and i know
- 28:51that was a very
- 28:52transformative experience many survivors
- 28:54do not choose to go back
- 28:56can you tell us about your decision to
- 28:58go back and what you
- 29:00uh learned during that during that
- 29:02period during that trip
- 29:04yes uh actually uh i was beginning to
- 29:08work with
- 29:09post-traumatic stress disorder it's not
- 29:12a disorder it's a reaction to a loss
- 29:15you know it's it's grief it's and we
- 29:18pathologize too much
- 29:20but i had these two paraplegics and one
- 29:23of
- 29:24them would be in a kind of a fetal
- 29:26position why me
- 29:27why me and blaming blaming
- 29:31god country and conversely
- 29:36people sent to god sends people my way
- 29:40i think they don't come to me you were
- 29:42sent to me too
- 29:44the other one is in a wheelchair and he
- 29:46says the following
- 29:48hey doc i am the luckiest
- 29:52man i am in a wheelchair
- 29:56and now i can see my children's eyes
- 29:59much closer
- 30:01i can see the flowers
- 30:04and i'm there with a white coat
- 30:09and it says dr eager department of
- 30:12psychiatry
- 30:14and i am feeling like the biggest
- 30:18imposter in the world
- 30:21i went to school i went to school i went
- 30:23to school i
- 30:24became a diplomat and this that because
- 30:28i told them the further i ran away the
- 30:31more i'm going to forget that
- 30:34and that's when i decided to go back to
- 30:36auschwitz
- 30:38knowing that i cannot take them further
- 30:41than i have gone myself
- 30:44so if i wish i could meet those two
- 30:46vietnam veterans
- 30:48that gave me the idea
- 30:52that i must give myself permission
- 30:56to go back to their clients then and
- 30:58look at the lion in the face
- 31:00and reclaim my innocence and assign the
- 31:03shame and give to the perpetrator
- 31:06you cannot have peace until you go
- 31:08through the rage
- 31:10so don't cover garlic with chocolate it
- 31:13doesn't take
- 31:14i know it doesn't do you any good so
- 31:17when i asked my mag dad to come with me
- 31:20because i wanted to honor my mother
- 31:23because exactly what happened what she
- 31:25told me
- 31:27and i told her you know we lost our
- 31:29family and we never went to a funeral
- 31:32and she told me i'm an idiot and i'm a
- 31:35masochist
- 31:37we went through the same experience so
- 31:40there is a difference between reacting
- 31:43or responding
- 31:47if someone tells you you you're gonna be
- 31:50dumped on
- 31:51that's what i teach children that's what
- 31:53the bully does you are stupid you you
- 31:56you
- 31:56the minute you hear the word you you
- 31:59take a deep breath
- 32:01and take relaxation and say to yourself
- 32:05the more they talk the more relaxed i
- 32:07become
- 32:08you take the negative stimuli
- 32:10immediately turn it into positive
- 32:12and the longer they talk the more you
- 32:16practice
- 32:16your low frustration tolerance level
- 32:20so i'm not a shrink i'm a stretch
- 32:23and i'm stretching your comfort zone
- 32:26today
- 32:27knowing that this is temporary
- 32:31you don't have to like it you don't have
- 32:35to be
- 32:36really anything other than telling
- 32:38yourself
- 32:39i don't like it it's inconvenient and
- 32:42it's temporary and i can't survive it
- 32:45so give me the butt and i give you an
- 32:47end
- 32:49yes and fedora yes and rather than
- 32:52yes but i don't know if your mother ever
- 32:55told you that you're a beautiful girl
- 32:58but you're fat and but you're pimply
- 33:03what happens when you say but
- 33:07you only think of what you hear after
- 33:10the birth
- 33:11so i tell especially parents don't say
- 33:13yes but
- 33:15or your husband
- 33:18men like compliments and the best thing
- 33:21is to watch filler in a room
- 33:23when she knows that the husband needs to
- 33:27know
- 33:28that he is the head of the family and he
- 33:31makes all the decisions
- 33:33in this family and guess who does she
- 33:36doesn't have any ego needs she doesn't
- 33:39compete
- 33:40uh or dominate she
- 33:44cooperates and works alongside of the
- 33:47man
- 33:48and that's what the pioneer women did in
- 33:50america
- 33:53they went together as a team
- 33:57and i like the modern marriages when
- 34:00they both get up in the morning
- 34:02and they both cook together and
- 34:06wash the car together and they work as a
- 34:09team
- 34:10all my i have two daughters
- 34:13and myself we are i
- 34:16am a working mother
- 34:20children don't do what we say they do
- 34:22what they see
- 34:25i beg man not to ever raise his voice
- 34:31because the child suffers from ptsd
- 34:35the child startles i do
- 34:38i still do i see a man in uniform
- 34:42i i was stopped and given a ticket
- 34:45and a 25-mile zone i i drove 40 miles
- 34:51and i looked at the policeman and i
- 34:55begged him not to give me a ticket
- 34:58and and he gave me a ticket and you know
- 35:00what
- 35:01i collapsed and there were two policemen
- 35:05and none of them helped me to get up
- 35:09and i told my daughter a beautiful
- 35:11brilliant psychologist
- 35:13what happened and you know what she said
- 35:17mother it's only money
- 35:21it wasn't the money so you see people
- 35:25say to me you overcame no i did not
- 35:29i'm reminded almost every day
- 35:32i went to have steak and i was
- 35:36on cobblestones immediately i saw the
- 35:39picture
- 35:39of children who were spitting at us as
- 35:42we were walking
- 35:45and calling us pigs so don't
- 35:48know i don't know that word overcome i
- 35:51came to terms with it
- 36:02i can tell you i was definitely sent to
- 36:04you and i quote you
- 36:05all the time one of my absolute favorite
- 36:07lines that you say
- 36:09that i tell my husband on a daily basis
- 36:12is
- 36:13would you be married to you that was my
- 36:16pearls of wisdom one of the best
- 36:18atheisms that i have i love that
- 36:20so i wanted to and the other one is when
- 36:23they do childhood ends
- 36:26exactly i wanted to focus a little bit
- 36:29on the period after the war on you
- 36:32arriving back
- 36:33arriving to america you're having
- 36:36children
- 36:37and i want to incorporate into this one
- 36:38of the questions that came in
- 36:41if you can talk a little bit about
- 36:43intergenerational trauma
- 36:45and how survivors pass on or don't pass
- 36:49on some of this trauma on a cellular
- 36:51level
- 36:52to the next generation yes
- 36:56if you are a child of a survivor
- 37:00i had a two-year-old little girl
- 37:03the two-year-old little girl becomes the
- 37:06parent's
- 37:06parent she introduces you to peanut
- 37:10butter
- 37:11she introduces you to tuna fish that
- 37:15you never saw before and most of all she
- 37:19teaches you
- 37:20how to or he teaches you how to speak
- 37:23english
- 37:24and uh i so my little girl
- 37:28did that and guess what
- 37:32we were very very poor i worked in a
- 37:34factory doing piecework
- 37:37for seven cents a dozen so the faster i
- 37:40worked
- 37:41the the more seven cents i got
- 37:45and my husband ended up in a tb hospital
- 37:49and it was in november when she came
- 37:53from the wonderful mrs bower
- 37:57a christian woman who took marion in and
- 38:00no charge
- 38:01and she said you have to buy it a turkey
- 38:04because thanksgiving is coming up
- 38:07so what we learned survivors
- 38:10is what to say or what not to say
- 38:14to the child i didn't say to marianne
- 38:17that i don't
- 38:18think i can buy a turkey because i don't
- 38:22have the money
- 38:24but i became a dancer and i went to a
- 38:27grocery store called schreiber
- 38:30i don't know whether they were jewish or
- 38:32german or both i don't know
- 38:34but i know that i i i know the guy
- 38:38was looking over me because i was
- 38:41checking out the prize
- 38:44so i passed the turkish and finally
- 38:47find a leader it's in my book
- 38:51a little chicken the smallest chicken
- 38:54and i gave him my money and he took 25
- 38:57cents
- 38:58and four pennies and people tell me you
- 39:01couldn't buy a chicken for 29 cents
- 39:04i bought a chicken and i know it was 29
- 39:07cents
- 39:07in 1949 the thing that also happened
- 39:12unfortunately
- 39:14that i survived nazi germany
- 39:18communist russia and i came to america
- 39:21and when i went to the bathroom one of
- 39:23them said
- 39:24colored that was a discovery
- 39:29don't forget the story about the turkey
- 39:31finish the story about the talk okay
- 39:34the third key uh
- 39:37story is that i
- 39:40took a bus and then another bus
- 39:44and another bus to go home to the
- 39:48to the backyard of a home
- 39:51that had a maids room where we lived
- 39:54that was our home
- 39:56and the people were jewish and they
- 39:59called us greener
- 40:00greener you know and they were telling
- 40:03me how
- 40:04how to um how to
- 40:09make a cake they didn't realize that i
- 40:12had the most
- 40:13wonderful astro hungarian pastry at home
- 40:17so you know they they put us in a box
- 40:20you know the greener and so
- 40:23anyway i did my choreography and and
- 40:26and i came in fired up totally fired up
- 40:30like i'm fired up now and i did the high
- 40:34kick and i said guess what
- 40:35we're gonna have a baby turkey
- 40:39and she went back to school i had a baby
- 40:41okay
- 40:42say she didn't know we were poor and i
- 40:45went into
- 40:47i went into a boutique shop
- 40:52see my father was the tailor who became
- 40:56a couturier and told me when i grew up
- 41:00i'll be the best dress gown in town
- 41:04and that's very true i do wear designers
- 41:08clothes
- 41:09but my little girl wore designers
- 41:12clothes too
- 41:14because i told the owner if you
- 41:19go down to 75 because i saw you have
- 41:2375 i want you to save it for me
- 41:28i never wanted my little girl to look
- 41:31poor even in high school i bought her
- 41:35pendleton skirts i remember that
- 41:39because i didn't want her to to not
- 41:42look like the best dressed girl in that
- 41:45classroom
- 41:46i i i wanted to assimilate
- 41:50too much because i didn't tell my
- 41:53children
- 41:55about auschwitz at all
- 41:59until i read men's search for meaning by
- 42:01viktor
- 42:02frankl and when i read that book i
- 42:06wanted to write 10 pages
- 42:08and i became a diplomate i did a 90th
- 42:12birthday
- 42:12a keynote speech for victor franco
- 42:17and and
- 42:20for many years people asked me to write
- 42:22a book and i would say
- 42:24i have nothing to say i have nothing to
- 42:26say
- 42:27until philip zimbardo from stanford told
- 42:31me
- 42:32i tell you what the survivors
- 42:36who are famous are all men we need the
- 42:40female voice
- 42:42and i am the female voice of victor
- 42:45franco
- 42:46in the choice
- 42:49wonderful and tell us about the other
- 42:52project that you have besides the choice
- 42:54which we all cherish and love
- 42:56tell us about your new project that
- 42:58you're working on and then we have a few
- 42:59questions that have come in that i'll
- 43:01ask you
- 43:02the gift the gift the gift came
- 43:05because i have beautiful beautiful
- 43:09people
- 43:09all over the world who said to me
- 43:13you're not done we need another book
- 43:15that is practical
- 43:18tell us what we can do and that's
- 43:21how the gift was born
- 43:25i give you 12 i was gonna give you 24
- 43:29and then i decided 12 is enough
- 43:32but if you want anything more i am full
- 43:36of it
- 43:36i uh i'm still studying i have yet to
- 43:40arrive
- 43:41i'm still in a climbing the mountain
- 43:44and i never stop climbing
- 43:48we love that message that's perfect can
- 43:50you tell us a little bit about your
- 43:52philosophy
- 43:52on forgiveness and if this has helped
- 43:55you you helped your patients
- 43:58i actually adhere to the hasidic
- 44:00philosophy
- 44:02that you look at everything from the
- 44:05positive perspective
- 44:07and and this is what i
- 44:10practice to be a realist rather than an
- 44:14idealist and forgiveness to me
- 44:18is not me forgiving you
- 44:22i don't have any godly powers just don't
- 44:25even think about that
- 44:27i think forgiveness is a gift that i
- 44:30give myself
- 44:32because if i would live in the fear and
- 44:35the
- 44:36hate i would still be a prisoner
- 44:39of the past so i think i spell selfish
- 44:43with a self-dash ish i want
- 44:47my true self that i would never be the
- 44:50hostage
- 44:51or a prisoner of the past i never forget
- 44:54what happened
- 44:55i don't overcome it i came to terms with
- 44:58it
- 44:59and i call it my cherished wound
- 45:04what took me was left in auschwitz it's
- 45:07not the better part
- 45:08i assure you but i think of that little
- 45:12girl
- 45:14who's grieving not what happened but
- 45:16what didn't happen
- 45:23beautiful i'd love to hear your thoughts
- 45:25on what you would say to people
- 45:28who think that the holocaust is a jewish
- 45:30problem
- 45:31instead of a human problem
- 45:36yeah well you know when i went to jewish
- 45:40schools as a child
- 45:43and we came out of the school
- 45:47children were spitting at me and they
- 45:50called me a christ killer
- 45:53that was before hitler
- 45:58i hated christmas
- 46:01i hated christmas and i did not know
- 46:04that jesus was a poor jewish boy
- 46:09i didn't know any of that ever
- 46:12so it's very very important
- 46:16that we all come perhaps from the house
- 46:19of david
- 46:20and we we go back to the originals
- 46:25and what happened
- 46:28as you know that when
- 46:32the jews were on the desert
- 46:36i think of 40 years that it took them
- 46:41to go to that promised land and they
- 46:44never gave up
- 46:46and that's the blood i carry never ever
- 46:50to give up
- 46:51and then from that
- 46:55came the state of israel
- 47:01and that's what we have now you know
- 47:04what
- 47:04if you go to israel to the old age homes
- 47:08people are smoking but
- 47:11they have the best part it's not
- 47:15turning you on it's helping with your
- 47:18arthritis
- 47:19and your pain yeah
- 47:22we are the originals even even
- 47:26anything nobel prize winners
- 47:31just look at the nobel prize winner
- 47:36the majority
- 47:39i wanted to ask you about um your
- 47:42decision to share your story so as you
- 47:44know
- 47:45my grandparents did not share their
- 47:47story
- 47:48and for a long time you didn't as well
- 47:51and then you had a relationship you had
- 47:53a connection
- 47:54to victor frankel and his book man
- 47:57search for meaning
- 47:58can you tell us a little bit about his
- 48:00influence on your work
- 48:02and your relationship
- 48:07my life have changed actually i was at
- 48:10the university of texas and
- 48:13and someone somehow found out that
- 48:17i was in auschwitz and said you know you
- 48:20got to read this book
- 48:22and so i went home it was in the middle
- 48:25of the night i was always in the library
- 48:28i graduated comrade myself
- 48:31and but i never showed up for my
- 48:33graduation
- 48:34because i said to myself that i don't
- 48:37deserve it because i'm alive
- 48:40i had tremendous survivors scared
- 48:43so have you ever read a book that you
- 48:45wanted to get 10 more pages for everyone
- 48:49so i actually wrote
- 48:53a little article and there were positive
- 48:58psychology
- 48:59people published it and someone sent it
- 49:03that to victor franco and i got a letter
- 49:08from vienna says victor franco
- 49:12wants to get to know me and we met in
- 49:15san diego at the international
- 49:18university and that's how
- 49:21i became a diplomat in logotherapy
- 49:25i even demonstrated him and reagan's
- 49:28bird guy
- 49:31he was 90 years old i did a keynote
- 49:34address
- 49:35at the logo therapy conference and and
- 49:38so he i tell you
- 49:41um as the most wonderful man
- 49:46that i admired he was climbing the
- 49:49mountains to the arabs
- 49:51in his seventies and when i met him he
- 49:54was taking
- 49:55flying lessons in his seventies amazing
- 49:58really truly a renaissance man
- 50:02thank you beautiful thank you i want you
- 50:06i want you to know that for many many
- 50:08people on this call
- 50:09and in your community of thousands of
- 50:11followers
- 50:13you are their inspiration and you are
- 50:15the one that they turn to and they want
- 50:16more pages
- 50:17of your book so i want to personally
- 50:20thank you for so much of your
- 50:22dedication and sharing your story and i
- 50:24always like to leave
- 50:26the last word to you giving your
- 50:29message to the audience here and to many
- 50:32generations who will hopefully get to
- 50:34hear
- 50:34your incredible wisdom and atheism that
- 50:37i use on a daily basis
- 50:40what can you tell us about how you live
- 50:42your daily life that we can use as
- 50:44inspiration because you are very
- 50:46inspiring
- 50:49there are three things that i do every
- 50:52day with my patients and with myself as
- 50:56well
- 50:57is grieving feeling and healing
- 51:01i have yet to arrive i climb and i sleep
- 51:04and i climb and i sleep and i will never
- 51:08stop climbing i don't believe in
- 51:10retirement
- 51:12i don't care about the chronological age
- 51:16that just numbers it's gonna happen
- 51:19anyway
- 51:20i have a very very hopeful attitude
- 51:24and i discovered that how to actually
- 51:28change hatred into pity
- 51:32and uh so there are two things i
- 51:36live in a present i can only touch you
- 51:39now
- 51:40so i hope that you can risk and maybe
- 51:43tell
- 51:44someone that you like to get to know
- 51:46them
- 51:47and they may tell you that they're not
- 51:49interested just remember
- 51:52a rejection is an english word that
- 51:55people make up
- 51:56to express a feeling when you don't get
- 51:59what you want
- 52:00it's all in your expectation so do not
- 52:03take
- 52:04things personally if anything if
- 52:06somebody calls your name
- 52:08all you have to do put an eye in front
- 52:10of it and they usually are talking about
- 52:12themselves
- 52:13and just say thank you a lot of thank
- 52:16yous i say a lot of thank you
- 52:19thank you for your opinion thank you for
- 52:21your input
- 52:22i don't deny someone else's throat
- 52:26i would not tell armando that you're
- 52:29wrong
- 52:30because his mind is already made up and
- 52:34and he didn't read later
- 52:37so i i just don't judge
- 52:40other people i i hope we can
- 52:44recognize that the most obnoxious person
- 52:47is your best teacher
- 52:50and i took care of a 14 year old white
- 52:53supremacy boy
- 52:55and he never knew where i came from
- 53:00and never knew my history
- 53:05because he told me that it's time for
- 53:08america to be white again
- 53:10and he's gonna kill all the jews
- 53:13and then over there using the n-word and
- 53:16the cincos
- 53:17and the muskins that was in texas
- 53:21and i just told him tell me more because
- 53:24god
- 53:25i ask god what do i do with that god
- 53:30you send me people and god told me
- 53:33find the bigot in you
- 53:36and i told god it's impossible
- 53:40i joined the naacp i marched with martin
- 53:43luther king
- 53:44you know i kept going and god said find
- 53:47a bigot in you
- 53:50and then i looked at that little boy who
- 53:53gave up
- 53:53all his freedom to a man called david
- 53:56koresh
- 53:58in texas
- 54:01they ended up bombing his place
- 54:05okay and i had
- 54:08three words tell me more
- 54:11love is time t-i-m-e time
- 54:14tell me more he never knew
- 54:18if i would have reacted that's the
- 54:21difference between reacting
- 54:22and responding if i would have reacted i
- 54:27would have dragged him
- 54:28by his hair to the corner and i would
- 54:32step on him and i tell him
- 54:34how dare you talk to me like that my
- 54:36mother went to the gas chamber
- 54:40that's the way i would have reacted
- 54:44but god told me to find a bigot
- 54:48in me there is a hitler
- 54:52and that is goodness and kindness
- 54:55and peacefulness there is no love
- 54:58without hate
- 55:00there is no summer without winter and
- 55:02there is no life without that
- 55:05i hope you live a lifestyle every moment
- 55:09is precious
- 55:11and i as a survivor tell you
- 55:14to me life is the most precious gift
- 55:19that god has given me not only to
- 55:22survive
- 55:23but to be a guide to other people as you
- 55:26can be a guide that people who stand on
- 55:30your shoulder
- 55:31can see further and that's what my wish
- 55:35is
- 55:36that the young people i carry
- 55:40carry me with them and do everything
- 55:44in their power that their children and
- 55:46grandchildren
- 55:48and great-grandchildren will never
- 55:50experience
- 55:51what i did i owe it to my parents
- 55:55and one of the most beautiful jewish
- 55:59gifts of god is the gift of memory that
- 56:02we celebrate
- 56:06thank you edie i want to tell you that
- 56:08you are
- 56:09for me and for many in this community
- 56:11many on here you
- 56:12are a gift and i carry your words with
- 56:15me
- 56:16on a regular basis you are
- 56:19thank you for showing up please show up
- 56:22for your children
- 56:23show up for your grandchildren and
- 56:27that is a foreign
- 56:31i spent wonderful wonderful time with
- 56:35you
- 56:36shalom have a happy hanukkah christmas
- 56:40holidays and pay attention what you're
- 56:45going to hold into and what are you
- 56:48going to let go of thank you edie stay
- 56:52healthy and we're all sending you a lot
- 56:54of love and happy holidays
- 56:55i want to be healthy for you too thank
- 56:58you
- 57:00bye bye bye
- 57:05thank you tally thank you dr eager
- 57:08um honestly i also dr eager just wanted
- 57:12to say i i typed this in the chat
- 57:16um but i felt like every sentence that
- 57:18was coming out of your mouth
- 57:21felt like this treasure trove
- 57:24of um guidance and wisdom and life
- 57:27lessons
- 57:28and i was seeing multiple people um
- 57:31saying
- 57:32similar things in the room and so i
- 57:34wanted to thank you for that
- 57:36and also know as you said you know share
- 57:38with your children and your
- 57:39grandchildren
- 57:40i wanted you to know that there actually
- 57:41were some students also
- 57:43on this session as well so you were
- 57:46sharing your message far and wide
- 57:48and many of you that asked if this will
- 57:52be recorded it absolutely has been
- 57:54recorded
- 57:54um it's available right now on facebook
- 57:56um but we will be putting it on
- 57:58our website as well a little bit later
- 58:00today shortly after this
- 58:02this program ends um and there will also
- 58:04be information there
- 58:06um on her books if you're interested in
- 58:08purchasing them
- 58:10um as well as you'll be seeing receiving
- 58:12an email and also look in the chat
- 58:14because we'll put the links there as
- 58:15well
- 58:16um to get any feedback from you we we
- 58:19really um we would love to share any of
- 58:22your feedback with
- 58:24tally and dr eager as well as any ways
- 58:27that we can um
- 58:28meet the needs of our community and um
- 58:31there are ways that we can
- 58:32improve this um we definitely want to to
- 58:35do that as well
- 58:37and and lastly if you um
- 58:40if you like these programs and you find
- 58:43them as meaningful as as i do
- 58:45especially this one please consider
- 58:49making a gift um to the center so that
- 58:52we can continue to provide these kinds
- 58:54of programs to the community
- 58:56at no cost accessibility is very
- 58:59important for us
- 59:00so thank you all very much for being
- 59:02here again holly
- 59:04wonderful job so nice to have you here
- 59:07and
- 59:07dr eager you are a gift thank you so
- 59:10much for being here
- 59:12have a wonderful day everyone thank you
- 59:23you
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