The Choice: Embrace the Possible

Deeply shocked, Edie can’t process her mother’s death because each moment’s survival requires every ounce of willpower. Soldiers take Edie, Magda, and the other women to the showers. They are stripped naked and shaved. Magda grips her cut hair in her fists “as though in holding it she can hold on to herself, her humanity” (38). After a long wait, they’re given uncomfortable clothes and led to their barracks. Dr. Mengele, Auschwitz’s “Angel of Death” and lover of the arts, enters Edie’s barracks and demands entertainers. The other prisoners shove Edie forward, and Edie dances to “The Blue Danube,” a routine she knows by heart. Dr. Mengele rewards her with a bread loaf. Edie and her fellow prisoners learn to draw strength from their inner worlds. Any small gestures they can make to feel more like themselves—Magda choosing a sexy, insensible winter coat, and women trading recipes none of them can make—fuel their hope and willpower. The inmates can never guess what will pour from the showers: water or gas. One day, Mengele walks into the chamber after a women’s shower and selects Edie to follow him. He leads her to his office and unbuttons his clothes, but his telephone rings before he touches her.