An Evening With Mrs. Eva Mozes Kor

Olivet Nazarene University

April 13, 2004, 7:00 pm

 

 

Following are my notes from Mrs. Kor’s presentation.  She was introduced by Dr. William Dean, chair of the ONU history department, as a Holocaust survivor, having lived through the twins experiments of Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz.  Mrs. Kor is fluent in three languages:  Hungarian, Hebrew, and she has a Master of Teaching in English.  Her assistant, Mary Wright, accompanied her.

 

  1. Surviving Auschwitz
    1. 1944:  spring – arrival at Auschwitz

                                               i.     Cattle car

                                             ii.     Patch of gray sky

    1. Mother was 38, sister (14), sister (12), twins (Eva and Miriam 10), and father Alexander Mozes, aged 44

                                               i.     Father was deeply religious

1.     Prayer on the train as it stopped at the ramp

a.     Asked God for help

                                             ii.     Eva experienced feelings of anger – she wanted to fight, to rebel

1.     1940:  in Transylvania, Romania, the twins had been blamed as Jews by their schoolmates for the German occupation

2.     1943:  family home surrounded by Nazi youth

a.     The children said to their father – “do something!”

b.     Father said, “We are Jews – there is no place to go.  You have to learn to take it…”

    1. When doors opened, Eva’s mother held the twins’ hands

                                               i.     They were on the selection platform for 10 minutes

                                             ii.     Father, older sisters separated from them; gone – never seen again

                                            iii.     SS officer:  “Are they twins?”  Mother:  “Is it good if they are?”  SS officer:  “Yes, it will be.”  Mother:  “Yes, they are.”

                                            iv.     Separated from mother – last time they saw her

                                             v.     10-12 sets of twins

    1. Tall barbed wire fence

                                               i.     Taken to a large building, like a gym

1.     Bleachers on one side

2.     Showerheads on the other side

3.     Made to undress and sit on the bleachers

                                             ii.     Processing began mid-afternoon

1.     Short haircuts, but not shaved

a.     Twins were privileged and got to keep their hair

2.     Clothes were returned to them later, with a large red cross painted on the back

3.     Registration, tattooing

4.     Eva tried to fight back, and asked for her mother

a.     “You will see her tomorrow”

                                                                                                     i.     Never trust a Nazi…

b.     Eva:  I didn’t “just have to take it”

c.     It took four adults to restrain this 10-year old child!

d.     A-7063:  number tattooed on Eva’s left arm

e.     Miriam said Eva had bit one of the SS men on the arm!

                                            iii.     Workers returning to camp

1.     Some looked like living skeletons

2.     A woman stepped out of line to speak to the children

3.     She was set upon and killed by two German Shepherds released by the guards

                                            iv.     Twins/triplets aged 1-13

                                             v.     Food:  2 ˝” slice of bread and a brown murky liquid called “coffee”

1.     Girls hadn’t eaten in four days

2.     Sister and Evan rejected it because it wasn’t kosher

a.     They were told to “eat everything if you want to survive.”

    1. Auschwitz II/Birkenau

                                               i.     Selections

                                             ii.     Four gas chambers/crematoria

                                            iii.     Chimneys burning day and night

                                            iv.     “They are burning our people”

                                             v.     “The Nazis use only those who can work, and only as long as they can work.”

1.     Eva’s blood froze as she thought that her family might be burning at that moment…

2.     Mengele:  experiments on the twins

                                            vi.     1st night:  no sleep

1.     Large rats on the floor of the barracks

2.     Latrine:  On the dirty floor, Eva discovered three corpses of children

a.     She pledged at that time to stay alive

                                          vii.     Volunteered to carry food from the kitchen

1.     Thought she could organize (steal) food to keep herself and her sister alive

                                         viii.     June or July:  Eva was injected with a deadly germ by Mengele

1.     High fever – she didn’t want to go to the hospital, which was next to a gas chamber

a.     Barrack with the living dead, two twins

b.     Mengele and four other doctors looked at her fever chart and declared Eva had only two weeks to live

                                                                                                     i.     She made a second pledge to beat Mengele’s fever – to stay alive

1.     She couldn’t walk at this point – had to crawl

a.     “I must survive.”

                                                                                                   ii.     After two weeks, the fever broke

1.     She manipulated the thermometer to manipulate the chart

a.     Three weeks later she was reunited with Miriam, who was in poor health

                                            ix.     Eva chosen as a food carrier

1.     “Organizers” would be hanged if caught

2.     Stole three potatoes

a.     Stole 3-4 times per week

b.     Miriam regained her strength

                                              x.     6:00 am appel (roll call)

1.     No socks, only coats with no dress on underneath

2.     Daily inspection by Mengele and associates

a.     Counted the twins

b.     Breakfast of “coffee”

c.     Experiments done at Auschwitz I

                                                                                                     i.     Demeaning, not dangerous

1.     Measuring, etc.

3.     Three times per week:  blood lab

a.     Sometimes enough blood was drawn to cause fainting

b.     Sometimes they were injected with chemicals in the arm

4.     Lunch was a pasty, gooey “cream-of-wheat” that couldn’t be swallowed…

5.     Once each week they were showered

a.     Eva used a bar of soap that lasted her from 1944-46

b.     That bar was probably made from human fat she later found out…

                                            xi.     Roll call in December from 6:00 am – 6:00 pm

                                           xii.     One day they realized the Nazis had left

1.     Two weeks later an SS army jeep pulled up and started firing machine guns

2.     Later, there were explosions all around the camps

a.     SS were destroying the camps, and “Canada” (where the clothes, etc. expropriated from the Jews was stored)

                                         xiii.     Death March out of Auschwitz

1.     SS suddenly disappeared

2.     Heavy fighting all around

                                         xiv.     Eva was able to get a drink from a nearly-frozen river one time

1.     Across the river she saw a little girl about her age, with a pretty dress and ribbons in her hair

a.     Girl looked like she was on her way to school

b.     “For the first time I realized that the entire world was not a concentration camp.”

c.     January 27, 1945 (four days before Eva and Miriam’s 11th birthday):  liberation by the Red Army

    1. After the war, Eva spent some time in a Catholic orphanage in Katowice
    2. Later went to Israel

                                               i.     Drafted into the Israeli army

                                             ii.     Rank of sergeant major

    1. 1960:  met an American tourist who spoke no Hebrew

                                               i.     Eva spoke no English

                                             ii.     Married, and came to the United States in June of 1960

    1. Has lived in Terre Haute, IN ever since.
  1. Lessons From the Struggle to Survive
    1. Never give up

                                               i.     “Your life can’t be as bad as mine was.”

                                             ii.     1978:  started to lecture

1.     Eva was asked about the types of experiments that were performed on her

2.     she began to research, but couldn’t find any specifics

                                            iii.     1979:  she wrote letters to the major television networks, Time, Newsweek, and Life magazines about publicizing Mengele twins

1.     heard nothing

2.     she continued to send out letters – nothing

3.     wondered of the twins – if any had health problems like Miriam or emotional problems like Eva

                                            iv.     1981-86:  became “president” of C.A.N.D.L.E.S. (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors) to get action

    1. Hatred and prejudice have not vanished from earth

                                               i.     One person can make a difference

                                             ii.     Judge people on the content of their character

                                            iii.     June 6, 1993:  Miriam died

    1. Healing through forgiveness – forgive your worst enemy

                                               i.     Doesn’t require religiosity

                                             ii.     In a 1992 documentary film, Eva and Miriam appeared on a program that also contained footage of an interview with Nazi doctor Hans Munsch

1.     he was an associate of Mengele’s

2.     Eva embarked on a quest to learn of the experiments that might have been done to her and others

                                            iii.     1995:  trip to Auschwitz to celebrate 50 years of liberation

1.     Declaration of Amnesty:  Munsch signed a document testifying to the operation of the gas chambers, etc.

2.     Eva signed her letter forgiving the Nazis, and her parents

a.     She had hated her parents all her life

                                                                                                     i.     Realized her parents did the best they could

    1. Give your parents an extra hug and kiss for all those in the camps who survived with no children, no parents

 

C.A.N.D.L.E.S.:  less than 80 Mengele twins are still alive

 

C.A.N.D.L.E.S. Museum: opened in 1985

  1. Burned on November 18, 2003
  2. Set to reopen in September of 2004