The Choice
Memoir Accessible Primary Sources
✡ Jewish / Holocaust
A ballerina sent to Auschwitz at sixteen — who danced for Mengele — becomes a psychologist and writes about freedom at ninety.
The Verdict
Frankl's lesson, lived a second time and carried into a life of healing. Edith Eger was a sixteen-year-old ballerina when she was sent to Auschwitz, where she was made to dance for Mengele and lost her parents to the gas. She survived, emigrated, and became a psychologist — and The Choice braids her testimony with her clinical work, asking what the camps taught her about the prisons people build long after the gates open. It is a survivor's memoir that doubles as a book about how to live afterward.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- A survivor's memoir that turns toward healing
- Readers who valued Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning
- Testimony joined to a psychologist's insight
- Those seeking meaning without denial of horror
Look elsewhere if you want
- A historical account of Auschwitz as a system
- Readers wary of a therapeutic frame
- Military or political history
Why We Rated It 4.6
Historical Context
Eger was deported to Auschwitz from Hungary in 1944 at sixteen and survived the camps and a death march. She later settled in the United States and became a clinical psychologist; she was influenced by, and came to know, Viktor Frankl. The Choice was published in 2017.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Scribner (2017)First edition.
PaperbackThe standard reading edition.
Read It Alongside
Man's Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl · 1946 · ★ 4.7
Memoir 
Night Elie Wiesel · 1960 · ★ 4.9
Memoir 
The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank · 1947 · ★ 4.9
Memoir Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-1501130793
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Ordinary Men Christopher Browning · 1992 · German
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Frequently Asked Questions
- How is The Choice connected to Viktor Frankl?
- Eger was deeply influenced by Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning and later knew him personally; her book extends his concern with finding meaning after suffering.
- Is it a Holocaust memoir or a self-help book?
- Both. It interweaves Eger's survival with her later work as a psychologist on trauma and freedom.