Yesterday I met an absolutely amazing woman by the name of Eva Kor. Eva is a survivor. At the age of 10, Eva and her twin sister Miriam were sent to Auschwitz and subjected to medical experimentation by Dr. Josef Mengele. They remained in the Nazi death camp for about 9 months before being rescued from the sub-human and torturous conditions.
I was able to hear Eva speak yesterday in an interview format with a video presentation behind her on the big screen. The pictures were difficult to watch and her story was equally gruesome. I expected that, tho.
What I didn’t expect to find was… a woman with an incredible amount of strength and character. There was no bitterness about what happened to her, no hatred towards those who hurt her and no anger about the past. Eva’s message was simple – forgiveness. She chose to forgive those who abused her and killed her family members. She never said it was easy, but she explained that she didn’t do it for their benefit. She did it for herself because she deserved it. Once she made the choice to forgive, a weight was lifted and her nightmares about the events ceased. Amazing.
Her story about surviving the camp was just as astonishing as her act of forgiveness. She told how, as the last of 4 children, her father had wished she were a boy and frequently told her it was her fault she turned out to be a girl. Eva became a very defiant and rebellious child which naturally lent itself to helping her defy the odds at Auschwitz. She pointed out that the numbers tattooed into her arm are blurred because it took 4 people to hold her 10 year old body down. She determined on the first night that she would survive. For her, there were no other options. She was injected with something that was supposed to cause her death (so her body and her twin sister’s healthy body could be comparatively autopsied at the same time). Eva became very sick but refused to die.
Her story can be found in a book called Echoes from Auschwitz and details her early life, her time in the Nazi camp and a brief account of what happened shortly after the liberation. Eva’s message to us all can be summed up in the brief note she scrawled inside the cover of my copy of Echoes from Auschwitz yesterday:
To learn more about Eva Kor and what she is doing now, visit The Forgiveness Project.
18 comments
gretchen
Hi Nita – you can reach Eva through the Candles Holocaust museum in Indiana. Their website is: http://www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org/
Nita Jones
I just watched Mrs Kor’s documentary “Forgiving Dr. Megele. I collect signed books, and would very much appreciate finding out how I may obtain a SIGNED FIRST EDITION HARD COPY of her book “Echoes from Auschwitz. Please let me hear from you. Thank you in advance for your response.
Nita Jones
864-352-6556
Ralph Elia
Gretchen, I beleave that your mom has the love in her heart of all the people that lived and died in that horrible place.
Corinne
Eva and Miriam her twin sister…along with the other mengele twins are amazing.
Since I was small I have always been curious about the Holocaust.
I go to the Holocaust Museum all I can and wish I could meet some of these amazingly strong people that survived this horrible time in history.
And I admire Eva for being able to forgive those that harmed her and her family.
Alley
Hey, this really helped me out and made me think. Keep it up.
chris
very cool!!! i met eva in january of this year at her 75th birthday celebration at CANDLES Holocaust Museum…what a terrific person and a remarkable story of survival and forgiveness!
i’ve blogged about her and other survivors on my online Holocaust memorial, Never Again!
jade
wow, im going to auschwitz with my school this year and im getting the chance to meet a surviver and ask him/her questions.
its unbeleivable the storys about it :/:( x
Annastasia Arnett
i’m learning about all this now in our school. I’m in 7th grade and i go to Clay.
i haven’t seen or heard such bad stuff in my life and my birthday is coming up here on june 3rd and on my birthday im going to tell how bad the holocaust was and tell them what i have learned while reaching the person i was stuck with. i really hope this lives on forever!
*i’m crying*
-Love
Annastasia Arnett-
sk8keeper
I am learning about the Holocuast in school:@):-h
Tessa
I Can’t beleive she did that:-?