Eugene Heimler was born on March 27, 1922 in Szombathely, Hungary. He was the son of a lawyer and prominent member of the social-democratic party. Heimler became a successful poet in Hungary with two volumes of poetry published before he was twenty. At age 21 he was deported to Auschwitz and Buchenwald and survived with the help of his happy memories about his childhood and his beloved mother. She died after a long illness shortly before the start of World War II.
His wife, Eva, his father, his sister and her little son were murdered in Auschwitz. In 1946 Heimler married Lily, to whom he dedicated this book. She died of cancer in 1984, leaving two children, Susan and George. In 1947 Heimler immigrated to England where he began to write NIGHT OF THE MIST in Hungarian. Soon after he received his diploma from Manchester University as the first psychiatric social worker, he began to develop his own social-integrative method of healing, (The Heimler Method) rooted in his experiences of overcoming obstacles described in this book. His approach became well known in Europe, America and Canada.
He then returned to Germany in order to teach young Germans his unique approach in which frustration and suffering are used as potential for satisfaction and creativity, and as the means to find purpose and meaning in life. He became Consultant for the Ministry of Social Security in England, the World Health Organization and the Government of the United States.
For 20 years he taught his subject in England at the University of London. His fame lead to chairs at several universities in the USA and Canada. In 1985 Heimler received an honorary doctorate in Canada from the University of Calgary, where he had taught The Heimler Method for 17 years. On the day marking the 40th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe, (May 8th, 1985) he married Miriam Bracha with whom he spent the last, very happy and fulfilled years of his life. Heimler died on December 4th, 1990.