Eva Kor, Auschwitz survivor and founder of the Candles Museum in Terre Haute, spoke with students and community members yesterday about her experiences during the Holocaust.
(Photo by Alyssa Richardson)

Thousands of students from both Warsaw Community School Corporation and Wawasee Community Schools filed into the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center at Grace College yesterday at noon to hear Holocaust survivor Eva Kor recount her dramatic and stirring story of surviving the Auschwitz concentration camp. The event was televised by Grace College over their live stream for Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation.

Though many are familiar with aspects of the Holocaust, Kor’s story tells of a plight rarely heard of — the experimentation done on the “Mengele Twins.”

At the tender age of 10, Eva Kor and her twin sister, Miriam, were ripped away from their family and taken to Auschwitz to become the guinea pigs of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Though they were never to see their family again, Miriam and Eva survived the horrors and experiments of Mengele.

Though Miriam has since passed away, largely in part due to stunted organ growth Eva attributes to Mengele’s chemical injections, Eva’s fire for life has not waned. Kor, who is now 80-years, gave a total of 203 presentations last year alone about her time surviving Auschwitz and, most importantly to her, the lessons to be learned from the horrors of the Holocaust.

Kor warns of the dangers of a bad economy, prejudice, appeasements and eugenics, which she cites began in Indiana with the sterilization of feeble minded individuals in 1907.

Students from Warsaw Community School Corporation, Wawasee School Corporation and Tippecanoe Valley Schools were among those to hear Kor’s experiences. Approximately 3,000 students and staff attended the presentation.
(Photo by Alyssa Richardson)

Among her lessons, Kor strongly encourages those who hear her story to have the strength to forgive their assailants and stand up against bullying. Though Kor was stripped, experimented on and had her entire family torn from her, she told students at the close of her presentation that she has forgiven the Nazis, including Dr. Mengele. Kor encouraged anyone who may need to forgive others to try what she did and write a letter of forgiveness to the person who had wronged them.

“The victims who are victims today … now if you are still living with the victimizer, I think you, even if you are a child, and I know it is very difficult if they are a close family member, you need to seek some help and remove yourself from the victimization because you cannot forgive as long as you feel that you are victimized everyday. Talk to a teacher, talk to a counselor, talk to a teacher, a minister, a grown-up, a friend. You need to remove yourself. Then, once you are removed, write a letter of forgiveness and get that monkey off your back so to speak.

“Those who are the victimizers, I am 99.9 percent sure that you were victimized and that this is your way of coping with it. Don’t pass on that family legacy to your children and grandchildren. Heal yourself. We should have many more workshops on forgiveness. It is not that complicated. I receive thousands of letters yearly of people who try my process and it works … what do you have to lose? Your pain.”

WCS sixth grade students Brooklynn McFadden, Brayanna Kelly and Kody Smith were among those who read Kor’s autobiography. All three agreed that the presentation was powerful and should return to Warsaw again in the future.
(Photo by Alyssa Richardson)

Kor concluded her presentation with an explanation of the dangers of prejudice and left students with the following message: “There is always hope after despair and there is always a tomorrow after a disaster. If you don’t give up on yourself and your dreams, you can accomplish anything you’d like.”

Students were moved by Kor’s message and admitted that they were amazed by Kor’s strength and ability to forgive.

“It takes a real strong person to forgive someone who did that,” stated Brooklynn McFadden, a WCS student in Mr. Sterk’s sixth grade Lincoln Elementary School class.

“It really strongly held to her book. It was very intense stuff. If you read a book you get what they are saying, but if you listen to her describe it, you can figure out the actions and her tone of her voice and how she tells it,” stated classmate Kody Smith.

Members of the community were invited to attend a second presentation at 6 p.m. The event was free and admission was granted on a first come basis. Seating capacity was listed at 2,500, however according to WCS Assistant Superintendent David Hoffert, a total of 3,000 people attended the evening session. A 2-hour long book signing of Kor’s autobiography Surviving the Angel of Death: The Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz was held following the event.

The book, as well as further information on Kor, can be found by visiting the Candles Holocaust Museum and Education Center page, which is a museum Kor founded in Terre Haute dedicated to the memory of the twin victims and survivors of medical experimentation at Auschwitz. Kor’s presentation was sponsored by the Kosciusko County Community Foundation.