Member-only story
The Attitude of an Auschwitz Survivor
What we can learn
I was blessed to stay at the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged while I was a patient at a nearby biofeedback clinic in 2001. While the results from my treatment were marginal, the experience of meeting an Auschwitz survivor was life-changing and has stayed with me.
Esther had 6 numbers tattooed on her arm. She was 90 years old when I met her. When I introduced myself, she acted as if she was meeting the queen; as though I was the most exciting person she had ever met. She listened carefully as I explained I had had a stroke when I was 35 and pregnant, and was in Miami for treatment. She was excited to hear about what I was doing in the biofeedback lab.
Esther’s world was a bit small living in an assisted living facility for the aged, but at 90 she approached every situation with more positivity than anyone I had ever met.
One day my sister and I told her we would go for a walk with her after dinner. You would think we told her we were taking her on a cruise. “Oh, boy,” she said, “we are going on a walk!”
Esther seemed perpetually glad for whatever life was throwing at her. Everything was better than what she went through as a child in Nazi Germany as a Jew.
