Edith was starting to enjoy her teenage years with a new love and dreams of their future together. The Nazis however started to restrict the freedoms of Jews more and more until one night when the family was rounded up and taken on a train they knew not where. Herded into a camp groups of people were separated with Edith managing to stay with her sister but her father and mother sent elsewhere.
What follows is a life in Auschwitz, without the complete horror described but disturbing enough.
Although the story has been told by other survivors it remains upsetting that other humans can treat a fellow human being in the way they did and every story is justified.

Raw, emotional, heart breaking are the words that come to mind with this book.

The horrors of the concentration camps in WW2 and Edith's struggle as a teenager to survive along with her sister. The sights and sounds must have been horrendous and hopefully never to be experienced by anyone ever again.

This is a book everyone should read as a lesson on what humans can and would do to one another. Are we really a caring breed?

Thanks go to Edith for having the nerve to share her true story with us.

Deeply moving and horrifying. I have previously read The Choice by Edith Eger and the Ballerina is basically a shorter retelling of this book. It focuses on events during the war rather than throughout the author's life. I would highly recommend both books which bear witness to the horrific events during the war, these stories should always be told.

4.5 stars. The moving and reflective story of Edith, who was taken to Auschwitz with her parents and one of her sisters, as a teenager. How she survived and then her life afterwards, thankfully finding her second sister had survived too. To read any books about people’s experiences, is harrowing but important - what we feel is a tiny fraction of what those who lived it felt. This has been rewritten and includes new material, but should be suitable for young adult readers (I’d say mid teens up).

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

A heartbreaking read.
Edie is sent to Auschwitz with her family she survives the death camp. This is a young persons version of the book The Choice by the same author.

I've read so many books about Auschwitz, but this one was so powerful and so intense.
I really liked it, it kept me interested and it was immensely sad.
I can't imagine what these poor people went through.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a tremendous book; one that I'd recommend to everyone. It is sad, raw, hopeful and brave. The format works well for people with short attention spans (like me) as it's not excessively long.

These stories may be devastating, but we must never forget.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC

This book was one of my most heartbreaking and remarkable reads of 2024. Honestly I cried at this story, the Ballerina of Auschwitz is only 192 pages and I read it in one sitting, I couldn’t put it down.

This is a real account of the Author’s experience at Auschwitz and how her and her sister stayed by each others side until they were liberated and finally free. Before she was sent to work in a death camp at only 16, she was a ballerina and gymnast who was going to start training for the Olympics until she was no longer allowed to compete due to her Jewish background. Before the War begins, we learn how rife anti-semitism was before the Nazi's popularised it across Europe. The daily horrors of being a Jewish person during the War were unimaginable, this story is so inspiring and a testament to how strong the human spirit and mind is.

I’d recommend this book 10000 times over.

I cried reading this, what a beautiful and heartbreaking book. Having read Eger’s other works, I knew her story and the horrors she suffered. However, she managed to spin it in a new light and add another layer of hope and pain to her experiences. Stories like this are so incredibly important and I applaud her for being brave enough to tell this story again.