"No one can take what you put in your mind" — Dr. Edith Eger (Rest in Peace) — Transcript

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1. 0:02[Music]
2. 0:04my mother told me
3. 0:05she hugged me and she said
4. 0:08we don't know where we're going we don't
5. 0:11know what's going to happen
6. 0:12she says no one can take away from you
7. 0:15what you put here in your own mind
8. 0:30[Music]
9. 0:35i didn't know anything until i saw our
10. 0:38wife mark fry
11. 0:41and i didn't know where i was
12. 0:44and everything was chaos that my father
13. 0:48looked at that
14. 0:49and said it can't be bad because we're
15. 0:52just gonna work
16. 0:53and then we go home
17. 0:56and then we were separated and i asked
18. 0:59the inmate when will i see my mother and
19. 1:02she pointed at the chimney
20. 1:05and said your mother is burning there
21. 1:08you better talk about her in past tense
22. 1:11and my sister
23. 1:12hugged me and said the spirit never dies
24. 1:17that's how i entered auschwitz
25. 1:20the spirit never dies
26. 1:29then i met dr mengele who told my mother
27. 1:32to go one way
28. 1:33and my sister and i didn't and i
29. 1:37followed my mother and he grabbed me
30. 1:40and he said in german you're gonna see
31. 1:43your mother soon she's just gonna take a
32. 1:46shower
33. 1:48i ended up dancing for dr mengele
34. 1:51and and i closed my eyes
35. 1:54and i pretended
36. 1:57that the music was tchaikovsky and i was
37. 2:00dancing the romy and juliet at the
38. 2:02budapest
39. 2:04so when i finished dancing he gave me
40. 2:07bread
41. 2:08and i shared the bread with the girls
42. 2:12and when i was on a death mart going
43. 2:15from wild thousand
44. 2:17to gunskirjem if you stopped you were
45. 2:21shot
46. 2:22right away and i was really slowing down
47. 2:26and i thought i'm gonna be stopped too
48. 2:29and uh and and i was going to
49. 2:35to be shocked and the girls that i
50. 2:38shared the bread with
51. 2:39they came and carried me so i won't die
52. 2:43isn't that amazing
53. 2:46the worst condition brings out
54. 2:50the best dinner
55. 2:53i came to america i was the one who
56. 2:56became the breadwinner
57. 2:58i was the one who didn't have time to
58. 3:00feel sorry for myself
59. 3:02i was the survivor and never the victim
60. 3:06and i worked in a factory and then they
61. 3:09i saw that there were two bathrooms
62. 3:12and one of them said colored how do you
63. 3:15think i found
64. 3:16so i always went to the college bathroom
65. 3:18i
66. 3:19joined the nsp i marched with martin
67. 3:22luther king
68. 3:23you know i don't have time to [ __ ] or
69. 3:26complain
70. 3:27if people are angry today they should
71. 3:30take the anger
72. 3:31and and vote in november
73. 3:35and young people are speaking up now
74. 3:38and i'm very proud of the young people
75. 3:41who speak up
76. 3:42what is going on today in america
77. 3:45that children are being taken away from
78. 3:49the mothers
79. 3:50i have nightmares
80. 3:53it's not over it's not over
81. 3:57i'm working on myself now and i have
82. 4:01visualization and how i was separated
83. 4:04from my mother
84. 4:05[Music]
85. 4:10when i was in a hospital doing my
86. 4:13doctoral work
87. 4:14i was doing all the psychological
88. 4:18testing for the psychiatrist and i had a
89. 4:22white code
90. 4:23and it says dr eager department of
91. 4:26psychiatry
92. 4:27and i was paged you know what
93. 4:31i didn't hear it until the psychiatrist
94. 4:34said
95. 4:34you're doctor eager aren't you that's me
96. 4:38that's me
97. 4:43[Music]
98. 4:53i know there are some survivors
99. 4:57even today that they are very isolated
100. 5:01they stay home they don't want to really
101. 5:05mingle with anybody else
102. 5:07i know that because they live in fear
103. 5:11and they don't believe in forgiveness
104. 5:14because they think that means
105. 5:17that you're gonna forget the past
106. 5:21and i keep saying forgiveness is giving
107. 5:24me
108. 5:25a gift that i do not allow
109. 5:30the nazis to control my daily life
110. 5:33it's not that i forgive them for what
111. 5:36they did to me
112. 5:37i don't have such godly powers but i
113. 5:40want to be free
114. 5:42and i want to embrace
115. 5:45embrace that part in my life
116. 5:49i never forget what happened i did not
117. 5:52overcome
118. 5:54but i came to terms with it every
119. 5:57experience in life
120. 5:59is a learning experience and gives
121. 6:02us a choice for that we're going to be
122. 6:04victims
123. 6:06or survivors
124. 6:10and and fear is not what we're born with
125. 6:15we learn it and sometime in your life
126. 6:20you have to sit down and ask yourself
127. 6:23how is it serving me
128. 6:25when you have fear you have no love
129. 6:28because love and fear
130. 6:30does not coexist so it's a good
131. 6:34idea for you to
132. 6:38recognize that you
133. 6:42can have a new beginning
134. 6:46today
135. 6:48i think that we cannot stop the
136. 6:51chronological age
137. 6:53i'm gonna be 91.
138. 6:56frankly i don't care about the numbers
139. 7:01because i feel younger now than i
140. 7:05felt many many many years ago i
141. 7:08welcome my age because i think
142. 7:11i am not smart now i'm wise
143. 7:15but i give up my need for other people's
144. 7:18approval
145. 7:19and give up my need for
146. 7:23pleasing other people and
147. 7:27not to be my genuine self so i think
148. 7:30it's a good time to age
149. 7:32probably when i will be on my deathbed
150. 7:35i'm going to feel very satisfied
151. 7:38that i was for something in life rather
152. 7:41than against
153. 7:42um for life and i'm for giving
154. 7:46permission and allowing
155. 7:49the limitations that i hopefully was
156. 7:53useful to others
157. 7:54and not only i survived but i'm guiding
158. 7:58other people to give themselves
159. 8:00permission
160. 8:02to recognize that they'll never be
161. 8:05another you
162. 8:08and so i am hoping that i will
163. 8:12take your hand and imagine that we're
164. 8:15going through a tunnel
165. 8:18and you can't go over it under it
166. 8:21we're gonna go through it with me it's
167. 8:24easier
168. 8:25it is not easy
169. 8:28but there is light at the end of there
170. 8:31is hope in hopelessness
171. 8:33and we never ever give up hope i
172. 8:36like the yeses yes i am yes i can
173. 8:40yes i will but then i don't want that i
174. 8:42don't want that
175. 8:43knows and don'ts is not my vocabulary
176. 8:47do's and yeses is and that's what i
177. 8:50learned in auschwitz
178. 8:52nothing came from the outside nothing so
179. 8:55the question is today
180. 8:57how can i find within me
181. 9:00when nothing comes from without and my
182. 9:04mother
183. 9:04was absolutely correct because i still
184. 9:07have
185. 9:08my mind and i still have my sister
186. 9:11because all we had was each other then
187. 9:14and all we have is each other
188. 9:24[Music]
189. 9:46you