Creating Beauty
From A Life of Pain
In her poetic language, Greta guides us on how to transform suffering into inner peace and joy, to become more loving and forgiving. Her poetry informs us that in order to create a peaceful society, we need to focus more on self-development and self-healing. As Greta says, “it is our life’s purpose to search, to grow.
Image Above: Photo taken in 1944 before going into hiding.
Greta as a child (bottom-middle) with her mother behind her, three siblings, and aunt.
A hidden child during the Holocaust, Greta’s early life was filled with experiences of losses, abandonment, confusion, and putting others before herself.
It wasn’t until Greta turned 40 that she took steps in an entirely new direction to understand what it really meant to be a human being.
Greta presenting at a Viennese high school in 2015
A dynamic spirit with so much to share, Greta is now committed to spreading the lessons she learned from her journey of suppression and survival to inner strength and deep love for the world around her. Since becoming involved with Holocaust Education at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Greta realized she could use her poetry as a powerful tool to engage the youth and as her students, let them become spokespersons of her poetry. While some are just natural artists, she shows others how her poetry can move them through art.
As a part of this multi-generational collaboration, Greta now seeks to turn her project into an art exhibition as well as a form of Holocaust education through art in schools. To learn more about Greta’s educational program, please click here. To learn more about Greta’s exhibition proposal, please click here.
Greta is a licensed clinical social worker with a Master’s degree in Social Work from Hunter College, 1977, and has postgraduate training from the Ackerman Institute of Family Therapy. She attended the International Himalayan Institute for 15 years and was affiliated with them as a clinician at the Center for Health and Healing at East West Bookstore, in New York City.
Her earlier work includes family services, adoptions, leading women’s groups, counseling Holocaust survivors and their families, as well as new immigrants. Greta has been in private practice since 1994, guiding families, couples, and individuals.
The Book
In her mother’s final months in 2006, words finally came to Greta in poetic form to describe the difficult first seven years of her life. The following years, Greta penned inspirational and love poems. She compiled these into her second book, God Plays Hide And Seek
The Gallery
Artists inspired by Greta’s story and poetry collaborated with her to create a gallery exhibition, spreading her life lessons of inner growth and compassion.