Finding Freedom in... Auschwitz -Cause/Belief: Dr. Edith Eger at TEDxSanDiego 2012 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02T-Rex.
2. 0:16Hello. Good morning.
3. 0:19Wow.
4. 0:22I heard a couple of speakers
5. 0:24talking about
6. 0:26how you matter.
7. 0:29How life is about climbing the mountain.
8. 0:32And perhaps that's what it's all about.
9. 0:36We sleep and we climb.
10. 0:38And we sleep and we climb.
11. 0:40But we never stop climbing.
12. 0:43I'm here this morning to really
13. 0:45celebrate
14. 0:47the life
15. 0:48that we have been given.
16. 0:51And telling you about a part of my life
17. 0:54that really guided me to be here today
18. 0:57with you.
19. 0:58And showing you no matter what happens
20. 1:01we still have the choice, the freedom to
21. 1:05choose in what way we're going to
22. 1:07respond to any circumstance.
23. 1:11I was working on my doctorate and I
24. 1:15began to work with Vietnam veterans in
25. 1:18the early '70s.
26. 1:20I had two paraplegics.
27. 1:22One of them
28. 1:24would be in a fetal position
29. 1:27cursing country, name it, God.
30. 1:31Conversely, the other one was telling me
31. 1:34that you know, I'm so grateful that I
32. 1:36had a second chance in life. That I can
33. 1:39look at my children's eyes now and I'm
34. 1:42able to really just see in in what way I
35. 1:45can do the most with what I have because
36. 1:48now I was given that second second
37. 1:52chance in life.
38. 1:54And I remember I had my white coat.
39. 1:57Dr. Eger, Department of Psychiatry. But
40. 2:00there was a little girl in there, a
41. 2:0216-year-old girl
42. 2:06who was hiding there, who had her
43. 2:08secret. Realizing I cannot take them
44. 2:11further than I have gone myself.
45. 2:14So I decided to go back. To go back to
46. 2:17that lion's den. Look at the lion in the
47. 2:19face. Recognizing I had my secret and
48. 2:22the secret had me.
49. 2:25I hope today you're going to also share
50. 2:27your secret.
51. 2:29Because when you share your secret
52. 2:31you're no longer in the concentration
53. 2:34camp that is in your own mind. Today I
54. 2:37will show you that the key is in your
55. 2:39pocket.
56. 2:41So I went back to Auschwitz. I asked my
57. 2:43sister to come with me. She refused.
58. 2:47So I'm going to take you back, May 1944
59. 2:51where I was in a cattle car. My mom told
60. 2:53me, "We don't know where we're going. We
61. 2:55don't know what's going to happen. Just
62. 2:57remember no one can take away from you
63. 2:59what you put here in your own mind." I
64. 3:02needed to go back to my mother and tell
65. 3:04her that this is exactly what happened.
66. 3:06I came to America penniless. I didn't
67. 3:09speak a word of English. I graduated
68. 3:11with honor and here I am today as Dr.
69. 3:13Edith Eva Eger.
70. 3:16I never forget the day when I met Dr.
71. 3:18Mengele at the end of the line. Dr.
72. 3:21Mengele pointed my mom to the go to the
73. 3:23left, my sister to the right. I followed
74. 3:26my mom and Dr. Mengele looked me in the
75. 3:28eye and said you're going to see your
76. 3:30mother very soon. She's just going to
77. 3:32take a shower and promptly threw me on
78. 3:34the other side which meant life.
79. 3:37When we arrived at the other side I
80. 3:40asked an inmate, "When will I see my
81. 3:42mother?"
82. 3:43And she pointed a chimney and fire was
83. 3:45coming out of the chimney and she said,
84. 3:47"Your mother is burning there. You
85. 3:49better talk about her in past tense."
86. 3:52So I'm asking you today, how can you
87. 3:54find from within when really nothing
88. 3:56ever comes from without? Dependency can
89. 3:59really breed depression. My sister and I
90. 4:03hugged each other and she said, "The
91. 4:05spirit never dies. The spirit never
92. 4:07dies." And that's what I bring you
93. 4:09today. That that spirit. That spirit
94. 4:13that they could not take away from me.
95. 4:15They could take everything away from me.
96. 4:17They could torture me. They could beat
97. 4:19me and they did. They broke my back. But
98. 4:22they could never ever murder my spirit.
99. 4:25That's what I bring you today. This is a
100. 4:27most wonderful uh group of people I have
101. 4:32ever met. And they were just giving me
102. 4:34nothing but the warmest care. It really
103. 4:37makes me believe that there is hope in
104. 4:40humanity.
105. 4:41So what happens in a situation like
106. 4:44that? And then things were very
107. 4:46difficult in Auschwitz because we never
108. 4:48knew what's going to happen when we took
109. 4:51a shower. We didn't know whether
110. 4:53gas is going to come out or water was
111. 4:55going to come out. But I remember I said
112. 4:58to myself, "If I survive today, then
113. 5:01tomorrow I'll be free."
114. 5:03Magda and I were cuddling
115. 5:06together all of the time. I remember
116. 5:10when we were shaven completely,
117. 5:13uh Magda looked at me and she said, "How
118. 5:15do I look?"
119. 5:17And I had a choice as you have a choice
120. 5:19now that I could pay attention to what
121. 5:22you lost or what is still here. And I
122. 5:25remember telling Magda, "You know, you
123. 5:27have beautiful eyes and I didn't see it
124. 5:30when you had your hair all over the
125. 5:31place." I think you're going to possibly
126. 5:35today somehow go home and see whether
127. 5:38you may be locked in in your own
128. 5:40concentration camp that is in your own
129. 5:43mind and your key is in your pocket.
130. 5:47You know,
131. 5:48I said to myself,
132. 5:51"No matter what they tell me." And I
133. 5:53they told me and I'm never going to get
134. 5:54out of here alive. And I said to myself,
135. 5:57"My conscience is clear." And I decided
136. 6:00that they were the prisoners, not me.
137. 6:03And from that point on I found found
138. 6:05that power within that I bring you today
139. 6:08that I was able to witness myself going
140. 6:12through an experience and not to allow
141. 6:14them ever ever
142. 6:17to break my spirit.
143. 6:19I stood in line to get my tattoo. I
144. 6:21didn't. And in December 1944
145. 6:25I was
146. 6:27taken out of Auschwitz. I became a slave
147. 6:30laborer and I was able to really just uh
148. 6:33uh survive because
149. 6:37I was
150. 6:38bombed. But we ended up in Mauthausen in
151. 6:42Austria. And then I survived a death
152. 6:46march. And the death march was very very
153. 6:49difficult. And so I am able to tell you
154. 6:53now that the liberation came because the
155. 6:5771st infantry came and they liberated
156. 7:01me. The saints came marching in. Today
157. 7:04I'm standing here letting you know that
158. 7:08uh
159. 7:08there is hope in hopelessness. And I'm
160. 7:11dreaming about the world that we're
161. 7:12going to hold hand in hand and we're
162. 7:14going to form a human family so we can
163. 7:17finally finally survive on this planet.
164. 7:21Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day.
165. 7:25Thank you.
166. 7:27Thank you.
167. 7:29Thank you.