Eva Mozes Kor facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Eva Mozes Kor
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Kor in 2016
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Eva Mozes
January 31, 1934 Porţ, Kingdom of Romania
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| Died | July 4, 2019 (aged 85) Kraków, Poland
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| Citizenship | United States |
| Known for | Founder of CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center |
| Television | Forgiving Dr. Mengele |
| Spouse(s) | Michael Kor |
Eva Mozes Kor (born January 31, 1934 – died July 4, 2019) was an American survivor of the Holocaust. She was born in Romania. During World War II, Eva and her twin sister Miriam were victims of cruel human experiments. These experiments were done by an SS doctor named Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. Eva's parents and two older sisters were killed in the gas chambers at Birkenau. Only Eva and Miriam survived.
In 1984, Eva Kor started an organization called CANDLES. This name stands for "Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors." Through CANDLES, she found 122 other survivors of Mengele's experiments. Her goal was to teach people about the Holocaust and the power of forgiveness. Eva gained international attention when she publicly forgave the Nazis for what they did to her. This story was shown in the 2006 documentary Forgiving Dr. Mengele. She wrote or helped write six books and took part in many memorial events.
Contents
Early Life and the War
Eva Mozes was born in 1934 in a village called Porţ, in Romania. Her parents, Alexander and Jaffa Mozes, were farmers. They were the only Jewish family in their area. Eva had three sisters: Edit, Aliz, and her twin, Miriam.
In 1940, when Eva and Miriam were five, their village became part of Hungary. In the spring of 1944, after Germany took over Hungary, Eva's family was forced to move to a ghetto. A ghetto was a special area where Jewish people were made to live. They had to make tents from sheets because there was no housing. A few weeks later, they were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Life in Auschwitz
In May 1944, Eva, her twin sister Miriam, her two older sisters, and her parents arrived at Auschwitz. After a four-day trip in crowded cattle cars, they were forced off the train. An SS guard asked Eva's mother if Eva and Miriam were twins. When she said yes, the twins were immediately taken away. Eva never saw her mother again. She said, "I never even got to say goodbye to her."
Eva and Miriam spent the next nine months in the camp. They were part of cruel experiments led by SS Doctor Josef Mengele.
On January 27, 1945, the Red Army (Soviet soldiers) freed Auschwitz. Eva and Miriam were among about 180 children who survived the camp. Most of these children were twins. After being freed, they went to a convent in Poland that was used as an orphanage. Eva and Miriam found a friend of their mother's, Rosalita Csengeri. She also had twin daughters who were used by Mengele. Csengeri helped Eva and Miriam return to Romania.
Life After the War
After the war, Eva and Miriam lived in Cluj, Romania, with their Aunt Irena, who also survived the Holocaust. They went to school and tried to heal from their terrible experiences. In 1950, when they were 16, they moved to Israel. They both served in the Israeli army. Eva served for eight years. They also attended an agricultural school. Eva became a draftsman, which is someone who draws plans for buildings or machines. She reached the rank of Sergeant Major in the Israeli Army Engineering Corps.
In 1960, Eva married Michael Kor, an American citizen and another Holocaust survivor. She moved to the United States to be with him. In 1965, Eva Kor became a US citizen. They raised their two children in Terre Haute, Indiana. In Terre Haute, people rarely talked about the Holocaust. Eva sometimes struggled with her anger. She had health problems that she believed were from her time in Auschwitz.
Miriam, Eva's twin sister, had kidney problems after her last pregnancy. Eva donated one of her kidneys to Miriam. Eva said, "I have one sister and two kidneys, so it was an easy choice." Miriam died in 1993 from kidney cancer.
Activism and Public Work
In 1978, Eva Kor started to gain respect for sharing her story. This happened after she was interviewed on TV when the miniseries Holocaust was broadcast.
In 1978, Eva and Miriam began to find other survivors of Mengele's experiments. In 1984, Eva founded CANDLES. She was the president of this organization and stayed active until her death.
She returned to Auschwitz for the first time in 1984. There, she promised to tell her family's story. In the 1990s, Kor became well-known for publicly forgiving all Nazis, including Mengele and Adolf Hitler. She made it clear that she was only speaking for herself. Her message of forgiveness became a very important part of her life's work.
Eva was very active until she died. She traveled around the world, giving talks and leading tours of Auschwitz. She returned to Auschwitz many times, often with friends and community members.
In 2007, Kor worked with Indiana lawmakers to pass a law. This law made Holocaust education a requirement in high schools. She was also featured in CNN documentaries called "Voices of Auschwitz" and "Incredible Survivors."
In 2015, she went to Germany to speak in the trial of a former Nazi, Oskar Gröning. During this trial, Kor and Gröning shared a hug. Kor thanked Gröning for being willing to testify about what happened more than 70 years ago. In 2016, a British documentary called The Girl Who Forgave the Nazis showed the meeting between Kor and Gröning.
In 2016, Eva Kor was part of a special technology project. This project created a hologram of her that could answer questions. It made it seem like she was in the room. Her hologram was even interviewed on the TV show 60 Minutes after her death.
A documentary film about her, Eva:A-7063, was shown in 2018. It tells her story and includes interviews with actors and historians. It was shown on PBS.
Eva realized that to heal, she needed to forgive those who hurt her. She spent months writing letters to them, even to "The Angel of Death" (Mengele). These letters were hard to write, but she felt she became a happier person because of it. Not everyone agreed with her decision to forgive, but she felt it was right for her.
Death
On July 4, 2019, Eva Kor died in Kraków, Poland. She was on an educational trip to Auschwitz with a CANDLES group. She died of natural causes at 85 years old. She made this trip every year to share her childhood experiences and give tours from her perspective as a survivor.
Awards and Honours
Eva Kor received many awards for her work. Four Indiana governors recognized her. She received the Sagamore of the Wabash Award twice. She also received Indiana's Distinguished Hoosier Award and the Sachem Award, which is the highest honor in Indiana. In 2017, she was the Grand Marshal of the Indianapolis 500 Festival Parade.
In 2015, she received an Honorary Doctorate from Butler University. She also received the Wabash Valley Women of Influence Award, the Anne Frank Change the World Award, and the Mike Vogel Humanitarian Award.
In 2018, Kor was honored by the ADL for her "resilience, compassion, and love in the face of hatred and violence." In 2020, she was given the 'Friend of Education' award after her death by the Indiana State Teachers Association.
In total, she received over 30 awards from different organizations and universities.
After Eva Kor died in 2019, a large mural was painted in Indianapolis. It shows her making her signature peace sign. The mural is 53 feet tall, making her look "larger than life." It joins murals of other important Indiana figures. The mural was finished in November 2020.
Works
- Echoes from Auschwitz: Dr. Mengele's Twins: The Story of Eva and Miriam Mozes (1995) with Mary Wright — ISBN: 978-0-9643807-6-9
- Surviving the Angel of Death: The Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz (2009) with Lisa Rojany Buccieri — ISBN: 1-933718-28-5
- Ich habe den Todesengel überlebt : ein Mengele-Opfer erzählt (2012) with Lisa Rojany Buccieri — ISBN: 978-3-570-40109-5
- Little Eva & Miriam in First Grade (1994) Eva Mozes Kor –
- Forgiving Dr. Mengele (2006) First Run Features – Bob Hercules and Cheri Pugh
- Die Macht Des Vergebens (2016) with Guido Eckert – ISBN: 978-3-7109-0011-2
- "Nazi Experiments as Viewed by a Survivor of Mengele's Experiments" (1992) in When Medicine Went Mad: Bioethics and the Holocaust by Arthur Caplan – ISBN: 978-1461267515
See also
In Spanish: Eva Mozes Kor para niños
