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CANDLES is an acronym for the words "Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experi­ments Survivors."

    The Museum was founded in 1995 by Eva Mozes Kor who, as a twin, survived the genetic experiments of Dr. Josef Mengele in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

    Beginning the fall of 1943, twins were carefully culled from the arriving groups at Auschwitz and were used in experiments which were under the direction of Dr. Josef Mengele. Approximately 1500 sets of twins or 3000 children were used as human guinea pigs in the experiments.

    On January 27, 1945, when Auschwitz was liberated by the advancing soviet army, only about 200 children were found alive. Most of these children were Mengele twins.

    Once in the camp, the twins were housed together in barracks, girls 1-13, boys 1-13. Three days a week, the children were taken to a lab in Birkenau where blood was drawn and they received injections of many unknown germs. One twin was the "guinea pig"; the other the control. If one twin died, the control twin was killed with an injection into the heart and comparative au­topsies were done. Three days a week they were marched to Auschwitz I, placed in a large room, and forced to stand or sit naked for six to eight hours. Every part of their bodies were meas­ured, compared to charts and each other.

    In 1978, after the "Holocaust" show aired on NBC, Eva Mozes Kor began to wonder what had happened to the children in the libera­tion pictures. How did their lives turn out? How has the trauma of Auschwitz and the ex­periments affected their lives?

    She searched for six long years. With the help of her sister, Miriam Mozes Zeiger, who lived in Israel and now deceased. Kor founded CANDLES in 1984. The Mozes twins located 122 individual survivors of Dr. Mengele's experiments, living in ten countries, and four continents.

    The CANDLES Museum is dedicated to tell­ing the story of the Holocaust and the stories of the Auschwitz twins. We need to note that the Mengele Twins are still searching for their Auschwitz files.

    Visitors to the Museum are given a per­sonalized tour and have the opportunity to ask questions and/or wander throughout the mu­seum viewing the many displays. It also serves as a resource center for teachers and provides tours for schools and groups.