“There were no birds at Auschwitz”

“There are still no birds at Auschwitz.”

The silence in the room was overwhelming, except for the sounds of a few listeners grabbing Kleenex from their purses.

Those of us in the audience were deeply moved as Dr. Edie Eger shared her triumphant story of survival in a Nazi concentration camp.

I’m sure you’ve studied in history class or perhaps even seen movies about the horror and atrocities that took place in Auschwitz.

Man’s inhumanity to man.

How could this have happened?

Acting less than human and even less than animals, a face of evil drove thousands of brainwashed SS members in World War II to arrest and exterminate millions of Jews during Hitler’s reign of terror.

It is almost incomprehensible that anyone (man, woman or child) could have survived the savagery that took place there in the concentration camps. And yet, there before me, sat this remarkable woman on the stage – a Holocaust survivor and the epitome of grace and forgiveness.

At 87 years old, Dr. Eger can still command a room. Her stories of surviving Auschwitz are unforgettable.

I’m still thinking about them.

She is living history, and it was a privilege to hear her talk about her life. You can read more about her at this link: http://dreee.com/history.html

There are no birds at Auschwitz

Think about that. It still gives me chills.

I can look out the window of my home and see and hear birds chirping every day. For Dr. Eger, the pleasure of experiencing the beauty of God’s creatures was stolen from her as a young teenager.

Like most of us at age sixteen, she had hopes of fulfilling her dreams and making her life into something wonderful. As a trained ballerina from Hungary, one of her dreams was to become an Olympic gymnast.

That dream was snatched away from her in 1944 as the Nazis took her and her family to Auschwitz.

Upon arrival at the camp, her parents were taken away. She and her sister never saw their father again and were told that their mother was in another line somewhere to take a  “shower.”

Dr. Eger could have lost all hope, but as she told us, that’s all she and her fellow prisoners had to cling to in a death camp – Hope.

More chills.

Dr. Eger and her sister had their hair shaved off immediately. Everything was taken from them – their jewelry, clothing – all of it and every day, they would wake up and think “What next?”

Surviving The Horror

Despite the constant fear and intimidation hurled at them from their captors, Dr. Eger held onto the fact that she would defiantly survive this horror.

“They” could never take away her memories and they could never take away her spirit. She willed to live in spite of everything that was happening to her and around her.

She remembers the needle sticking in her arm as she was forced to give blood which was then used to save the lives of injured Nazis.

One of her most chilling memories was that she was selected to dance in front of Dr. Josef Mengele, also known as the “angel of death.” I guess he needed some entertainment in his down time.

Besides Dr. Eger’s unwavering will to live, her talent as a ballerina was just one of her abilities that helped keep her alive. She could use her talent to dance before the enemy and, sometimes, it resulted in an extra ration of bread.

The extra scraps of food helped sustain her, but more importantly, so did her belief in God.

“God was with me in Auschwitz”

Her hope for a rescue and her belief in God kept her going and she knew in her heart that, one day, she would be freed. She was weak and injured to the point of death at times, but her life was far from over. In 1945, her hope became a reality as American soldiers arrived and rescued her. She was discovered, almost unconscious, as she lay among a mass grave of fellow prisoners.

Dr. Eger’s stories of life in Auschwitz (and the other camps she was moved to) are enough to make you shudder and be ashamed for taking anything you have in this life for granted.

You would think that Dr. Eger hated her captors, but she didn’t.

She said she pitied them.

She knew that the people who staffed those concentration camps would eventually be tried and, in some cases, executed for their war crimes. Even worse, until they died, the images of their brutality would be on their consciences forever.

Forgiveness no matter the cost

I can’t think of many examples of people who are as forgiving as Dr. Eger is.

She’s a shining example of what Jesus told us when He commanded us to love and pray for our enemies. We may not be able to change them, but we can pray for them.

Dr. Eger has become one of my heroes. This lovely woman has turned the heartbreaking memories of her past into a mission of encouragement for all of us to reach for our Savior, even in the darkest and loneliest of places.

God bless you Dr. Eger for sharing your story with the world. At age 87, you are one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever been around.

May God bring all of you peace who are reading this today.

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