I had not heard of the author's first book, 'THE CHOICE' nor of her story, so this book came to me fresh - and as a complete shock. It's the story of Edith Eger's life, but mostly of her experience of being taken to Auschwitz aged 16, of her time in the camps and how this has impacted her whole life. In this account, the original book has been condensed and reshaped potentially for young adult readers, which means that is a shorter and quickly readable account.

In spite of that, it is an emotional and harrowing read; yet beautifully written, evocatively re-creating the horrific times, the things people had to endure, and how, as the author puts it, "We can’t alter the past or control what’s coming round the next corner. But we can choose how to live now.”

Edith's choice, as she came back into the real world and her real life, was to become a psychotherapist, to help others, with her message and story of hope, resilience, and yes, choice. Choosing to bring good out of what could have become a downhill slope of depression and victimhood, the author recounts her personal story in order to help others to make the same choices of hope and help. And, too, to help next generations discover the truth of what occurred during the holocaust.

There are many accounts, both fiction and non-fiction, of those terrible times. This is one of the most powerful I have read, even though it is comparatively short and in some ways, quite matter-of-fact. This is what happened; this is what it caused; and this is the good that has somehow been able to come out of all of that.

To be read with hankie to hand, especially as Edith describes what happens to the love of her life.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the Advanced Reader Copy. This is my own honest review.

read this book in one sitting before bed. Could not sleep after it, I just kept thinking about what Edith and Magda went through. It was such a a heartbreaking read. I had to keep putting it down for a couple of minutes to compose myself, that's something they couldn't do. Eric, I have no words. He sounded such a lovely young man. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ebury Publishing, Penguin Random House.

“We can’t alter the past or control what’s coming round the next corner. But we can choose how to live now”

The generation who actively experienced the Second World War, fascism, the Holocaust, whether as the victims of that obscene ideology, or as its perpetrators, are almost all dead or impossibly ancient.

Meanwhile, horrifically, we witness the rise of ultra right ’populist’ politics, the demonising and dehumanisation of other races, other creeds, other sexual orientations which are not heteronormative, those who are female, both in this country, in Europe, in the USA, like some deadly, lethal virus advancing in its spread, global.

To I hope most of us, this is incomprehensible. This is why I HAVE to read books like Eger’s. It is not because I want to read graphic descriptions of mankind’s inhumanity to itself, to those whom it denigrates as not being as human as itself, but because it seems more than ever important to acknowledge that the potential to be the absolute worst of mankind is there within every one of us. There is, as Eger reminds us, both in this book, and her others, a choice. In large and small ways, we can embrace our humanity or embrace our – not bestiality, as the depths of sadistic and cruel brutality is something which seems almost uniquely human – but our most selfish, self-serving and vicious selves.

Edith Eger, like fellow psychotherapist and philosopher Viktor Frankl, survived the camps, and used the experience of their own, terrible trauma to help others, not only holocaust survivors, but more widely, humanity at large, or at least, those who can recognise that within us is always some choice as to whom we might be, the person who denigrates and denies the humanity of others, or the one who recognises a shared humanity, and tries to choose the acknowledgement of the sacred in the other.

This is, yes, a horrific book, but also an inspiring one, written from a place of hope.

Very humbling read and I’m so glad that the original version (The Choice) has been rewritten so that it can capture a younger audience.
Beautifully written and well executed.
I will be encouraging my younger children at work to read this.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I have read a few of these Auschwitz books but this one got me in a way others didn’t
I think because it’s told from someone who is very young makes a difference the author is the youngest of three daughters Magda, klara and Didkcu their father was a tailor very well known they lived a good life until the war
They were dragged from their homes and put on cattle trains to take them to camps they were separated first men and women then worst the girls and their mother were separated
It began they were stripped head shaved left for hours to get their uniforms so eventually got their striped dresses and horrible knickers and thrown into sheds were they slept on boards 2 to a bed
Food was virtually non existent, you went to work everyday if you were too ill you were shot if you couldn’t take it anymore you threw yourself on electric fence death was quick
Magda and Didkcu survived day after day
The book is very descriptive about the camps things I had never read before but that’s what makes it interesting too also you forget at times this is a teenager seeing all these things

As the title suggests, this is a memoir concerning the teenage years of a ballerina and gymnast, dominated by the months she spent in Auschwitz and then various camps as the war drew to its end. There are quite a few of such memoirs now and the6 never fail to be both profound and shocking. Of course there is a shocking level of brutality but more importantly, the book emphasises the resilience of the human spirit. She was extremely close to death, had typhus, pneumonia, pleurisy and a broken back and weighed about 70lbs, 5 stone at liberation, yet she survived. To quote, “I was victimised bit not a victim, hurt but not broken, the soul never dies but meaning and purpose can come from deep in the heart of what hurts us most”. Wow!

I have read almost every book sharing stories of people who suffered at Auschwitz after my visit to Krakow in 2018. Edith Eger's story as a true survivor hits home, I couldn't put it down and I will recommend this as a must-read for everyone. A really powerful story which I won't ever forget.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Recently, every time I see a book title using the formula “the [insert job title] of Auschwitz”, I come close to rolling my eyes. The sufferings that occurred in the many concentration camps can’t be defined and delineated with such a simple formula, especially one that seems to be being used over and over. Still, I decided to give this one a go because it was written by a survivor, and it was the right decision. The reductive book title doesn’t do Eger or her work justice.
This book was a truly powerful work, beautifully written. Edith Eger has crafted a beautiful legacy from the ashes of her time being subjected to the cruellest abuses imaginable. She’s given future generations insights into how to survive mentally when everything around you is calculating destruction. It’s more than a remarkable memoir. It’s a work of loss and of hope, of hatred and love, of survival being the best revenge. Everyone should read this book.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the privilege of being able to read this in return for an honest review.

Oh, this book stirred up so much emotion in me. Poignantly written it portrays the authors story in the lead up to her and her sisters imprisonment in Auschwitz, the time they spent there and what happened following their liberation. I found it so hard to read but completely compelling. It is difficult to understand the cruelty that was endured whilst admiring the courage that it took to survive such an ordeal. This is a book that needs to be read.

It won't be much longer before there are no people left alive who lived through this. It's one thing reading books written about it, and another reading first hand experience. I have passed family who did so, and I know the effect it had on them. It is seared on my mind and impacts my life. It echoes through the generations. But for those who do not have this in their family, books like this one are essential reading. It's written well and draws you into the life and experiences of the author. It's much more than historical. It's visceral and real, and encourages you to place yourself in such a position and see how it might feel. In current times, where attitudes are ever more divisive, we need whatever possible to enable people to realise what our current trajectory might bring us to. This book is not easy reading and some of it is heart breaking, but well worth it.

Couldn’t put this book down. Differed from other books I’ve read on the same subject matter but equally harrowing without including too many of the horrific details. Was a story of hope and choice and disappointment in a whole generation of people who were not able to see humanity in the way it needs to be. Lesson to us all to appreciate everything, focus on life and equality of all.
An “easy” read in terms of writing style, very much through the eyes of the 16 year old protagonist. After the horror of Auschwitz comes the aftermath of trying to recover and function and the ongoing hangover of the nazi regime despite the war’s end. Interesting to see this element in a story as so often it ends with the concentration camp.

Thanks for an arc courtesy of NetGalley here is my review. What a journey this truly inspiring book takes the reader on. Poignant, thought provoking, sad , the list of descriptive words for this book doesn’t do it justice. Truly magnificent read that stayed with my after reading. Really enjoyed reading the story line.

How can you possibly give a review on such a book? The true story of Edith and her sister Magda who survived the atrocities of Auschwitz when they are sent there with their mother who did not. Edith loved to dance and when she is asked to demonstrate her talent by Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death, she does so in order to survive. What the story tells us is heart breaking and all the more horrifying as it is fact! I could not put it down but can I say I enjoyed it? I think I can only say it had to be read. Edith writes with the heart and soul of a woman who has seen and experienced terrible things but survived to live and tell her story and she does it well. I sobbed at the end!

A heart wrenching read by Edith Eger, a survivor of the holocaust. It tells the story of evil and cruelty beyond the imagination. It begins with murmurings and anti-Semitism, Edith is excluded from the Olympic gymnastic team and the yellow star on uniforms is introduced. Her storytelling allows us to meet real people with aspirations of achieving something or just simply getting by. Theirs is a close-knit community.
There is constant unease and tension as her father is taken away and returned later. Her terrifying ordeal (that sounds too lame) begins when with her parents and older sister Magda she is rounded up and taken to Auschwitz.
We watch in horror as one word sends her mother to her death. A single word, which will add to her personal trauma. Some how despite many obstacles she manages to survive with her sister and together they are liberated by USA soldiers. Their strength and will to survive cannot be taken from them.
One cannot escape the mention of Palestine as a place of hope for the Jews and this perhaps jars a little given the current political climate. This however is about human life and what two teenagers had to endure. I hope the Palestine people will be seen as humans with aspirations to simply live.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this a head of publication.

Sometimes words cannot fully justify how an author has remarkably well written a book and this is one of those occasions.
The author made me feel so many different emotions as I read what they went through during their horrendous experiences as a child and as an adult in war times.
There is no way that I could ever imagine how horrific life was and what the family and everyone mentioned in this book went through.
Anyone that reads this book will feel raw emotion but also heartful reassurance that there are good things that come out of bad things if you have faith, strength within and sheer tenacity.
An excellent read

This is an incredibly powerful and harrowing read. That such atrocities happened is utterly heartbreaking but it is so important that we remember them and all the people whose lives were sadly lost during the holocaust. Thank you to Edith for sharing her experience with the world. Her strength and resilience is truly inspiring.

A poignant and powerful memoir that really hits hard. Edith’s story is gut-punching but shows her strength and will for life throughout.

As time passes there are very few left who can tell of the true horrors of the holocaust. Edith Eger has previously told some of her story in her book, The Choice, but here she gives a more detailed account of what she and others endured. It is aimed at young adults and while it doesn't shy away from explaining the barbaric treatment that Jews and others were subjected to, it holds back from being really graphic. It is still a painful read though, but a necessary one.

We can't change the past, but we can continue to be witnesses for those who suffered and were killed. It remains as vital as ever that we don't forget the consequences of seeing others as less than human and where that can lead. The book is also a testimony to those who survived and that hope can endure.

This was an extremely harrowing and heavy read. I feel like reading books such as ‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas’ gives you an insight into how horrific the experience that so many innocent lives had to endure but to actually read it from someone who experienced it and survived it is heartbreaking and put it all into such a different perspective for me, especially given the state of the world at the moment. I’ll admit that I hadn’t read the authors other book but I will absolutely be picking it up to educate myself further.

Eger’s memoir The Choice remains one of the most memorable books I’ve ever read. So when I saw she was publishing a young adult retelling of her experiences during the Holocaust, I knew it would be worth a read.

In many ways, this is a more straightforward memoir than the original, with a chronological narrative and a strong adolescent voice. But the more accessible storytelling in no way diminishes the power and devastation of the story Eger tells: there is a clarity to her words and the images she captures that only sharpens their emotive impact. Eger foregrounds the humanity - the hope and despair, and freedom of thought - she found in concentration camps which were cruelly designed to dehumanise their prisoners.

The Ballerina of Auschwitz is a vital first-person testimony from a survivor.