Surviving the Holocaust and Forgiving the Nazis

A-7063, the number that was inked into Eva Kor’s skin as she arrived at Birkenau, one of the largest Holocaust concentration camps. It was May of the year 1944 and the Nazis had invaded Poland. The words “we have come to take you away” resonate in Eva’s mind. After days trapped in cattle trucks, Eva and her family, along with others, were unloaded onto the selection platforms at Auschwitz-Birkenau. A Nazi soldier quickly spotted Eva and her sister Miriam. The soldier demanded to know if they were twins, their mother said yes. Miriam and Eva were pulled away from the crowd, leaving their mother on the platform – the last time they would ever see her. Eva remembers her with “so much pain in her eyes.”

As the twins were directed to the barracks, Eva recalls “the smell of burning flesh everywhere.” The two sisters spent the next ten months as subjects to experimentation. Eva and Meriam were observed, injected, and tested in an array of horrific ways by Doctor Josef Mengele. Mengele, who was known as “the angel of death” wanted to unlock the secrets behind engineering the master race.

One night, Eva came across lifeless bodies of children on the latrine floor. From there, Eva pledged that her and Miriam would not end up like that, they would survive. At one-point Eva became extremely sick after being injected with an unknown disease. Dr. Mengele said, “too bad she’s so young, she has only two weeks to live.” Eva knew that if she were to die, they would kill Miriam being that they needed both twins for the experiments. Thus, she refused to die. Weeks later, Eva’s fever broke, and she began feeling better.

January 27, 1945, Eva and Miriam’s day of liberation. The Russian Red Army marched into the camps and there was a moment of “total silence” according to Eva. Rather than immediately freeing the prisoners, the Russians had them walk through the wire fences multiple times to get proper footage of the liberation. The sisters were among nearly 180 children, of which were mostly twins to survive Birkenau.

Nine months after liberation, time spent in orphanages and refugee camps, Miriam and Eva finally returned to their home in Romania. Eager to see if the rest of their family was there, the girls opened the door to an empty house (Eva: A-7063, Documentary)

Years later, Eva found herself in the United States of America. There she started her new life with fellow survivor, Michael Kor. The two lived in Terre Haute, Indiana which would later become home to the CANDLES (Children of Nazi Auschwitz Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors) Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

Eva and Miriam founded CANDLES, Inc. in 1984 as an effort to locate other Mengele twins. As a result, the sisters were able to locate 122 individual twins from across the world.

In 1995, the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center opened. This was a way for Eva to share her and Miriam’s story. Here, Eva met Amy Guess. Amy worked alongside Eva as the CANDLES curator and coordinator for nearly two years. In that short time span Eva “impacted nearly every aspect” of Amy’s life.

When asked about her first impression of Eva Amy stated “intimidating, there’s really no other word for it.” Though, if you ask Amy now, she syas that Eva was “the funniest person ever.” Aside from sharing a tiny office for ten years Eva and Amy formed a strong bond. So strong that Eva even referred to Amy as her granddaughter.

Through the years Amy was able to experience a lot with Eva. She even returned to Birkenau with her for a visit. Traveling back to the concentration camps was something Eva did often. “She was very prideful” to return and share her story, it’s as if “she was the winner” by surviving.

One thing Amy remembers is that when she initially began working at CANDLES, Eva asked a very specific question, one of which she often asked people. “Who is someone you absolutely hate, and do you forgive them?” For Eva, this question was significant because forgiveness played a huge role in her life.

As a survivor of the Holocaust, a victim of Mengele’s experiments, and a person who lost loved ones to gas chambers forgiveness may seem impossible. For Eva, it was necessary for self-liberation. In 1993, Dr. Hans Munch, a former Nazi doctor at Auschwitz agreed to meet with Eva. The two met in 1995. Here Much signed a documentation of the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

In the document, Munch states that he “witnessed the selection process of those who were to live and those who were to die.” He goes on to share how he watched thousands of people die from being gassed, and that “this is a nightmare [he continues] to live with fifty years later.”

Also at the meeting, Eva handed over her “Declaration of Amnesty.” This was a letter of forgiveness, one in which Eva forgave all the Nazis who participated in the “murder of [her] family and millions of others.” Despite the horrifying things she endured because of the Nazis, Eva decided to forgive them for as she stated “it is time to go on; it is time to heal our souls; it is time to forgive, but never forget.”

Eva died on July 4, 2019 while visiting Auschwitz. Eva lives on through family, friends, and her remarkable story.