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Eva Kor Biography
Eva Mozes was born in the tiny village of Portz, Romania, in 1934. The Mozes family enjoyed a comfortable if rustic living. Eva's father, Alexander Mozes, was a wealthy landowner and farmer. He and wife Jaffa had four girls: Edit, Aliz, and the twins Eva and Miriam. Through the first four years of Eva's education, she and Miriam attended a one-room schoolhouse. But the family lived under the specter of the Nazi takeover of Germany and the everyday experience of prejudice against the Jews. When Eva and Miriam were six, their small village was occupied by a Hungarian Nazi armed guard. The Mozes family was the only Jewish family in the village. After being under occupation for four years, the Mozes family was transported to the regional ghetto in Simleu Silvaniei in 1944. Just a few weeks later, the family was loaded with other Jewish prisoners onto a cattle car and transported to the Auschwitz Nazi death camp. After a 70-hour ordeal without food or water, Eva and her family emerged from the packed cattle car onto the selection platform at Auschwitz. Eva believes that at 85 feet by 35 feet, no other strip of land in the world has seen as many families ripped apart as that selection platform. In the mass of people that poured out of the cattle car, Eva and Miriam gripped their mother's hands. Eva looked around and realized her father and two older sisters were gone. She never saw them again. Soon after, the girls were ripped apart from their mother, whom they also never saw again. Eva and Miriam became part of a group of children who were used as human guinea pigs in genetic experiments under the direction of Dr. Josef Mengele. Approximately 1500 sets of twins - 3000 children - were abused and most died as a result of these experiments. Eva herself became deathly ill, but through sheer determination, she stayed alive and helped Miriam survive. Approximately 200 children were found alive by the Soviet Army at the liberation of the camp on January 27, 1945. The majority of the children were Mengele twins. Eva and Miriam Mozes were among them. After the camp was liberated, Eva and Miriam were all alone. They no longer had anyone else in the world except each other. They were in three different refugee camps over nine months before returning to live with their aunt in Romania. Even though free from Auschwitz, Eva struggled to feel free as Communists took over Romania. It wasn't until immigrating to Israel in 1950 that Eva and Miriam first felt free and were no longer afraid of persecution because they were Jews. Eva spent the next 10 years in Israel, first attending an agricultural school where she received a good education. Later, she attained the rank of sergeant major in the headquarters of Israeli army's engineering corps. While living in Israel, Eva met Michael Kor, a Holocaust survivor and American tourist. In 1960, the couple was married in Tel Aviv and Eva joined Mickey in the United States. Eva became a US citizen in 1965, and the couple raised two children, Alex and Rina. In 1978, after NBC's miniseries The Holocaust aired, Eva began to wonder what had happened to the children after the liberation. Where did they go? What did they do? How did the trauma of Auschwitz and the experiments affect their lives? These questions, and many more, motivated her to begin searching for the surviving Auschwitz twins. Eva enlisted the help of her Miriam, who was still living in Israel. Together the sisters began trying to locate other survivors of Dr. Mengele's deadly experiments. In 1984, Eva founded CANDLES, Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors, and named her sister Vice President for Israeli Survivors. Eva liked the acronym CANDLES because she wanted to shed some light on this hidden and dark chapter of the Holocaust. For nearly forty years, little was known about the now infamous twin experiments. The selection of twins for genetic experiments had not been a topic of Holocaust conversations. On January 27, 1985, six Mengele twins met at Auschwitz II-Birkenau to observe the 40th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. They continued on to Jerusalem for a mock trial for Mengele, where 80 twins participated. The Auschwitz observance and mock trial generated worldwide publicity and helped locate even more Mengele Twins. The U.S. Congress even passed a resolution to begin a search for Mengele. As a result of the Mozes twins' efforts in the early years of CANDLES, 122 individual Mengele twins living across ten countries and four continents were reconnected. Fifty years after the liberation of Auschwitz, Eva returned to the site and stood where so many were tragically murdered. At her side was Dr. Hans Münch, a Nazi doctor who knew Dr. Mengele, but did not work with him in Auschwitz. Eva read Dr. Münch's signed witness statement to contradict those who denied the Holocaust. To the surprise of many, she then freed herself from her victim status and announced to the world that - in her name alone - she forgave the Nazis. An incredible weight of suffering was lifted and she felt strong. Offering her forgiveness healed Eva, but it did not mean she would forget and it did not change what happened. Forgiving the Nazis drew mixed reactions and resulted in controversy. Throughout each conversation about her forgiveness, Eva remained insistent that the act was for her well-being alone and not intended to dismiss the Holocaust. Eva's forgiveness was the catalyst that broadened CANDLES' focus to include peace on both a personal and societal level. In 1995, Eva opened a small museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, her home since 1960. The museum housed various artifacts from Auschwitz and documents relating to Dr. Mengele; its purpose was to educate. Thousands of people, mostly school-aged children, have visited the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center since it opened in 1995. Eva and the work of CANDLES continued until it was interrupted by a devastating fire in November 2003. Ignited by hatred, an arsonist destroyed the museum, but not CANDLES. Surviving the camps taught Eva "to never, ever give up." The need for CANDLES and its message of peace and forgiveness was made even more evident by this act of hatred. Through the generosity of countless local and national supporters, CANDLES rose from the ashes and a new building was erected. In April 2005, CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center was re-opened to the public. Instead of destroying CANDLES, the attack strengthened the organization's resolve and brought it into the public eye. CANDLES established a board of directors to assist with the administration of the new facility and help communicate its important messages. After twenty-five years, Eva remains an integral part of the organization. Her lectures and guided tours are key elements of CANDLES' educational mission. She has returned to Auschwitz on several pilgrimages and plans to return in the future. Often, she is accompanied by friends and members of the community, particularly educators, so that they can share what they have learned with their students and future generations. In 2007, Eva worked with state legislators Clyde Kersey and Tim Skinner to gain passage of an Indiana law requiring Holocaust education in secondary schools. Now Eva and CANDLES are the leaders of a new statewide grassroots committee called IHELP, formed to provide resources and curricular support for Indiana educators who teach the Holocaust. In the summer of 2009, Eva will teach a course at Indiana State University on the value and philosophy of overcoming adversity in life using the Holocaust as an example. Today, Holocaust education and the story of the Mengele Twins form the foundation of CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Through an ever-broadening vision, CANDLES teaches its visitors the importance of respect, equality, the power of forgiveness, and peace. Eva Kor in the News Eva Kor featured on PBS show 'Religion and Ethics' CANDLES founder Eva Kor was featured on a recent installment of the nationally-broadcast PBS series "Religion and Ethics". The program focused on Kor's act of forgiving the Nazis, which has drawn international attention. To watch this report, click here. Eva Kor Speaks to Overflow Crowd at Wabash College Eva Kor, founder of CANDLES, spoke to an overflow crowd at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, on Wednesday night. She lectured about her experience in surviving the Auschwitz death camp as part of the "Discover Indiana" series. Click here for an article about this presentation. Kor Shares Story with Pennsylvania Middle/High School Click here to read media coverage of Eva Kor's lecture in Sheffield, Pennsylvania. http://www.timesobserver.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=7955
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