At 16, Edith Eger faced unimaginable horrors.
She and her family were forcibly taken to Auschwitz concentration camp, where her parents were killed within an hour of their arrival.
Edith was left to navigate the nightmare of the camp, her survival dependent on both her resilience and the strength of her mind.
On her first day, a Nazi officer ordered Edith to dance.
It wasn’t a performance for applause—it was a humiliation, an assertion of power.
In that moment, Edith could have succumbed to fear, anger, or despair. But she chose something else.
The Mental Escape
As she began to dance, Edith didn’t see herself in Auschwitz.
In her mind, she was on stage in the Budapest Opera House.
She imagined wearing a beautiful dress, twirling gracefully under the warm glow of stage lights, performing for an admiring audience.
This mental shift wasn’t just an escape—it was her survival strategy.
Edith’s mother’s last words rang in her ears:
“Never forget, Edith, no one can take away from you what you’ve put in your mind.”
Through this act of reframing, Edith protected a part of herself that the Nazis could never touch: her inner freedom.
Seeing the Guards as Prisoners
In time, Edith’s perspective shifted even further.
She began to see the prison guards not as invincible oppressors, but as prisoners themselves.
“They weren’t free in their minds,” she explained later. “I was.”
This reframing gave her strength and compassion.
While her body was confined, her mind remained untouchable—a sanctuary where she could nurture hope, imagination, and the will to survive.
The Lesson
Years later, Edith would reflect on her time in Auschwitz and say,
“The greatest prison you’ll ever live in is the one you create in your own mind.”
Her story is a testament to the power of perspective.
While we can’t always control our circumstances, we can control the stories we tell ourselves about them.
Key Insight
Edith’s resilience teaches us that freedom begins in the mind.
By reframing our experiences, even the most harrowing ones, we can find strength, hope, and purpose.
Life may place us in difficult situations, but we decide how those situations shape us.
This post was inspired by Dr. Rangan Chaterjee's YouTube video, How To Stop Feeling Empty and Find Your Unique Purpose.