Shared roots, intertwined memories

There are some conversations that stay with you long after they end. The kind you anticipate with a special excitement, reserved for rare and meaningful moments in life. That’s exactly how I felt before sitting down with Dr. Edith Eva Eger – Holocaust survivor, psychologist, and bestselling author of The Choice, The Gift, and The Ballerina of Auschwitz.

If I could add another title to her name, it would be this: an incredible founder at 98, who, with the right people around her, built a brand that is both deeply authentic and profoundly impactful. A brand rooted in her life story, her choice to grow out of unimaginable trauma, her belief in resilience as a healing force, and a company that has become her life’s work – making a profound human impact.

My connection with Edith was personal. Reading her book, I felt our shared history and common messages. We were both dancers, and this had a profound influence on our lives. And like her, I see resilience as the thread to guide me through life. The moment I opened her book, I knew one day we’d speak. My grandparents, Nushi and Karol Feher, and my partner’s grandmother, Marta Schun, were all born in Košice – the same city Edith was born in. I couldn’t stop imagining my grandmother and Edith walking down the very same streets before the war.

The echoes ran deep. Edith danced for Mengele, and that dance saved her and her sister Magda’s lives. My grandmother Nushi and her sister Oli were chosen to live by him because they were “too beautiful.” Our conversation felt intimate, like a thread stitching generations together. Edith is 98 – the age my grandmother would have been today. 

Sometimes her age showed, and the conversation wandered, but her grandson Jordan gently guided her back. I received it with nothing but compassion and respect. To me, that only made the conversation more human, more precious. I hope you’ll feel it too.

Choice as the doorway to freedom

When I asked Edith how she survived Auschwitz when so many others didn’t, she said that even there, surrounded by barbed wire, she kept telling herself: This is temporary. I will get out. She also told me that in that darkness, she found God – for her, a symbol of her choice not to lose her inner voice or her hope.

Her reminder is timeless: we can’t always control what happens to us, but we can always choose how we respond. For entrepreneurs and leaders, that’s a powerful truth – our daily choices of mindset and reaction are what shape the entire journey.

Resilience – personal and collective

Here in Israel, since October 7, we live with daily trauma. Edith is a living proof that even the most horrific situations don’t last forever. Her life itself is evidence that you can hold on to hope, even when your heart is broken. She repeated again and again that she doesn’t stay in the past – she chooses to live in the present and build a future from it.

That message feels especially urgent now, as we search for ways to hold ourselves and our children in a world of uncertainty. We need to remember: this too shall pass. And out of the fracture, we can grow, heal, and live again.

Family as an anchor, resilience across generations

Edith had two sisters, Magda and Clara. In Auschwitz, she and Magda went through hell together, and their bond became their survival. They held each other up, encouraged each other, and gave one another a reason to keep going. Even decades later, Edith said her sister’s presence was her strength – and hers in return.

For her, this isn’t only about family. She believes we all need someone who truly sees us. And once we have that, we’re stronger. Resilience, she says, is built inside relationships – and that’s how it gets passed from one generation to the next.

Writing, meaning, and meeting Viktor Frankl

We also spoke about her meeting with Viktor Frankl and about writing as a way of healing. Just like he wrote about the life-saving power of meaning, Edith chose to transform her trauma into purpose. She said writing came not from invention, but from simply listening inward and letting the story come out.

Jordan, her grandson, added that The Choice wasn’t guaranteed. Earlier attempts had failed. Only at 89, when she connected with Doug Abrams – an agent who became a true partner – did the right team form, and that’s what made the book possible.

And The Choice is different from other Holocaust memoirs. Edith didn’t just tell a historical story – she wrote about the human condition: fear, choice, hope, the search for meaning in darkness. That’s why even people who never faced the Holocaust find life lessons in her book: how to carry pain, how to choose again, and how to turn personal fractures into opportunities for growth.

It’s never too late to begin again

Edith started studying psychology in her 40s, finished her PhD in her 50s, got married, divorced, remarried the same man when she chose him again, and published her first book at almost 90. Every one of those steps was a conscious choice – to keep growing, to keep becoming, to keep doing what mattered most to her.

Her story reminds us that as long as we’re alive, we can always choose again. We can pause, listen inward, and write a new chapter. Sometimes, it’s later in life that wisdom, depth, and clarity arrive – and with them, the ability to truly impact others. Edith proves that age isn’t a barrier – it’s a doorway to renewal, to new opportunities, and to turning the past into a gift for the world.

An entrepreneurial mindset for life itself

Talking to Edith and Jordan wasn’t just another podcast recording (to me, they never are – they’re always human encounters, fertile ground for shared creation). But this one carried another layer – personal, generational, historical, emotional.

Beyond seeing in Edith the image of my grandmother, beyond the window into history, beyond my deep admiration for her – she reminded me of something vital: the choices we make every day shape the way we live. Resilience isn’t only personal; it carries forward, touching others long after we’re gone.

Edith showed me that an entrepreneurial mindset isn’t only about starting companies, leading people, and achieving success. It’s about choosing, again and again, how we face challenges, how not to get stuck in the past, and how even pain can become fertile ground for growth. It’s about choosing to see the light even in the darkness, and reminding ourselves that the power to create change begins within. That, to me, is a message for us all – as leaders, as managers, and as human beings.