A Story of Twins Who Went Through Terrible Experiments and Stayed Alive

year ago

Eva Mozes Kor is a woman with an extremely difficult destiny who went through all the terrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp but found the strength to live on. She is 85 now and is active on Facebook and Twitter, she travels around the world, acts in documentary movies, writes books, and even established a museum dedicated to the history of Nazi experiments.

Bright Side was struck by Eva’s destiny and is going to share the most impressive moments of the story of a girl whose will to live turned out to be stronger than she ever imagined.

Childhood

Eva Mozes was born in Romania to a Jewish family. She had 2 older sisters, Edit and Aliz, and a twin-sister, Miriam.

Eva (to the left ) and her twin sister Miriam, 1935

In May 1944, the whole family was sent to Auschwitz. They traveled for 4 days on an overcrowded train that was previously used for transporting cattle. When Eva’s family arrived at the concentration camp, the warden asked her mother whether her daughters were twins. After receiving a positive reply, the girls were pulled out of their mother’s arms and taken to a separate shelter. Eva and Miriam never learned the further destiny of their parents and sisters. The last time the twins saw their parents and sisters was at the “farewell platform” in Auschwitz.

The experiments of the Angel of Death

Josef Mengele, 1965

The twin phenomenon excited many Nazi doctors, including the cruelest doctor in Auschwitz, Josef Mengele. He was even called the “Angel of Death.” There were about 1,500 twins like Eva and Miriam in Auschwitz, and no more than 300 survived. Tens of thousands of people became the victims of Mengele’s horrifying experiments. The doctor had an exceptionally scientific interest in twins because he wanted to increase the birth rate among Aryan women. He also wanted to find out how various diseases affect the human body.

Eva (to the right) and Miriam, 1949

Redemption

Eva and Miriam during the liberation from Auschwitz, January 27, 1945

On the 27th of January, 1945, one of the hostages of the concentration camp burst into the shelter where the sisters were staying shouting, “We are free!” The girls ran to the street and saw smiling people in white camouflage — they were hugging the hostages and giving out chocolate and cookies to them. These were the soldiers of the Red Army.

The soldiers of the red army freeing the prisoners of the camp

After being freed, the 11-year-old girls were placed in the custody of nuns. As Eva recollects, the nuns would give a lot of toys to the girls, but the girls were no longer able to play — their childhood had finished in Auschwitz forever.

After that, the sisters returned home to their port village in Romania, but their home was empty and vandalized. Eva says it was the saddest day in her life because she was hoping that someone from her family was still alive and that they would’ve returned home.

Life after Auschwitz

In 1950, when Eva and Miriam were 16, they got permission to migrate to Israel and settled down in the city of Haifa. Both girls also served in the Israeli army.

Eva and Miriam after being freed

In 1960, Eva Mozes married an American man named Michael Kor who was also a Holocaust survivor. The couple moved to the USA and had 2 kids — Alex and Rina. There Eva started to work as a real estate agent.

Eva Mozes Kor with her son Alex, 2019

For the rest of her life, Miriam suffered from a kidney disease that was caused by the experiments held on her in childhood. And though Eva had donated one of her kidneys to her sister, Miriam died in 1993. She was 59 years old at the time.

2 years after her sister’s death, Eva Mozes Kor established the CANDLES museum dedicated to the history of Nazi experiments on kids. The acronym stands for “Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors.”

Eva Mozes Kor, 2016

Today Eva is actively engaged in educational activities, lectures, and guiding tours. Kor has published 2 autobiographical books and acted in several documentaries.

Eva Kor at the premier of a documentary movie, 2014

In 2007, Eva Mozes Kor worked with Indiana lawmakers to get a law passed that requires a review of the Holocaust in high schools.

Eva Mozes Kor during a lecture, 2019

Forgiving

Eva Kor showing her camp number A-7063

After her sister’s death, Eva made her way toward liberation, forgiveness, and healing.

In April 2015, Kor went to Germany to testify at the trial of the former Nazi, Oskar Gröning. During the trial, Eva went up to Gröning and hugged him. She says that she felt she had the power to forgive and can use it in whatever way she wants. Forgiveness made her stronger, helped her to cross out some terrible memories, and released her from her tragic past.

Eva Mozes Kor and Oskar Gröning, 2015

Given the scale of Nazi crimes, Eva’s declaration caused a mixed reaction. She replies to critics saying that she has been convinced over her long life that nothing good has ever come from malice or cruelty. That’s why any act of kindness wins over anger.