Auschwitz Survivor Finds Hope in Hopelessness, Perseveres to Become Best-selling Author and Acclaimed Psychologist in Autobiographical Film "I Danced for the Angel of Death: The Dr. Edith Eva Eger Story"
Fourth documentary from The Holocaust Education Film Foundation broadcasts on American Public Television and Public Television Stations in recognition of National Holocaust Remembrance Day in April
"I decided they were the prisoners, not me." - Dr. Edith Eger
CHARLESTON, S.C., March 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This April, WLRN Public Television for South Florida and American Public Television (APT) presents "I Danced for the Angel of Death: The Dr. Edith Eva Eger Story," a new one-hour autobiographical film from the Holocaust Education Film Foundation that reveals how Holocaust survivor Edith Eva Eger's bravery keeps her alive through three concentration camps, only to struggle for years with flashbacks and survivor's guilt. Edith discovers to heal, she needed to forgive the one person she had been unable to forgive - herself. This film will be made available to public television stations on April 1, 2021, for Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Born September 29, 1927, in Kosice, Slovakia, where she lived with her parents and two older sisters, Magda and Clara, Edith lived a typical Jewish life. The family eventually moved to Budapest, Hungary where in 1944 Nazis put them on a cattle car to Auschwitz as part of the Final Solution. Clara, a violin prodigy who "didn't look Jewish" was hidden by her music professor and continued to perform during the war.
Upon arrival at Auschwitz, Edith's parents were immediately murdered, and she spent her entire incarceration with her older sister Magda. Most chillingly, Edith had at least two interactions with "the Angel of Death" Dr. Joseph Mengele. First when he tore her away from her mother with the promise that "your mother is going to take a shower and you'll see her soon." The second when he discovered she was a ballerina and gymnast and demanded she dance for him. The bread she received for dancing was shared with fellow prisoners who remembered this act of kindness and it ultimately saved her life.
Edith was placed in full prisoner garb on top of a munitions train as a human shield to keep the British from bombing and after a brief stint at Mauthausen was placed on a forced death march to Gunskirchen Lager. There were 44,000 incarceration sites and ghettos, including 23 concentration camps, and incredibly this film includes a living liberator who remembers every moment of his experience in that self-described "hell hole." The full breadth of this horror is described in vivid detail through the eyes of Alan Moskin, a 94-year-old Patton's Army soldier who liberated Gunskirchen Lager. Edith was ultimately pulled from a pile of corpses when she was liberated in 1945.
After the war, Edith's nightmare did not yet end. From the Communist overthrow of Hungary, to her husband's imprisonment and her smuggling him out, to their arrival penniless in the USA, Edith's determination is remarkable. She refused to be a victim and never gave up. Today, at the age of 93, Edith is a published best-selling author and internationally acclaimed Psychologist.
WLRN premieres the documentary on Thursday, April 8 @ 8:00 P.M. (EST), repeats forthcoming.
About The Holocaust Education Film Foundation:
Established in 2018, the Holocaust Education Film Foundation produces full-length documentary films featuring first-person accounts from Holocaust survivors, which are distributed globally through numerous platforms and educational programs. The 501c3 foundation seeks to ensure that we never forget.
About American Public Television (APT)
SOURCE The Holocaust Education Film Foundation
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