Oprah Winfrey delivered the eulogy for Dr. Edith Eger at a packed memorial at The Bishop's School on Sunday, Oct. 4. Eger, a Holocaust survivor, psychologist and author, once called La Jolla home.

Eger died April 27 at 98.

The memorial, first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, drew friends, family and admirers to the school's auditorium on Draper Avenue. Photos of Eger from throughout her life lined the halls.

Winfrey told the crowd she met Eger after reading her 2017 memoir, "The Choice: Embrace the Possible." She said she was moved not just by what Eger endured but by what Eger chose to do with it. Eger understood, Winfrey said, that one freedom always remains: "the freedom to choose what you will do with what has happened to you."

Winfrey credited Eger with choosing love over hate and closed with a simple tribute: "We thank you, Edith … We thank you."

The service also featured dance performances inspired by Eger's books, video clips of her speaking about her life and television appearances, and tributes from friends and family, according to the Union-Tribune.

A teenager in Auschwitz

Born Sept. 29, 1927, in Kosice, Hungary, Eger was a trained ballet dancer and gymnast who dreamed of competing in the Olympics. She was 16 when the Nazis sent her to Auschwitz in May 1944. Her parents were killed there.

At the camp, infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele forced her to dance for him. Eger and her sister Magda survived and were eventually liberated from the Gunskirchen camp.

A La Jolla life

Eger later moved to La Jolla, where she built a private clinical psychology practice and held a faculty appointment at UC San Diego. She continued seeing clients into her 90s, according to Fox 5 San Diego. She also consulted for the U.S. Navy and Army, including Special Operations Forces, helping soldiers who struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries.

Both of her best-selling books were published after her 90th birthday. A third, "The Ballerina of Auschwitz," adapted her story for young readers in 2024.

In 2021, at 94, Eger spent five days recording answers to thousands of questions for the USC Shoah Foundation's Dimensions in Testimony project, according to the foundation. The interactive biography allows her video image to answer real-time questions in museums and classrooms worldwide.

In a 1998 interview with the Shoah Foundation, Eger reflected on her path from Auschwitz: "I don't have time to hate. I don't forget what happened to me. I may not overcome it — I think I came to terms with it, and I was able to integrate it. Took me 40 years, and I'm still not done."

Photos of Eger at every age watched over the auditorium Sunday as Winfrey spoke.