Lessons to Learn from Eva Mozes Kor

 by Louisa McKay

Eva and Miriam

Eva Mozes Kor was 10 years old when she and her Jewish family were taken by the Nazis to the Auschwitz concentration camp. She had an identical twin sister, called Miriam, and the pair were inseparable, they loved looking the same, dressing the same, and tricking people. As they arrived at Auschwitz, a Nazi soldier realised they were twins; at that point, the girls were ripped from the rest of their family, whom they never saw again.

The fact they were young, healthy twins was a dream come true for Dr. Josef Mengele, who was an officer and physician during World War II, mainly known for his cruel human experimentation, especially twins. This led to the two girls being experimented on throughout their time at the camp; surprisingly the two girls survived the year they spent at the camp and later moved onto life outside Auschwitz into normal jobs.

The book The Twins of Auschwitz is written, mainly biographically, from Eva’s perspective; she talks about their time in the camp as a pair and how she was notably the stronger of the two as they were vital for each other’s survival, after many years outside the camp, whilst leading normal lives, Miriam became ill as a result of her kidneys having complications, Eva donated one of her kidneys to her twin; however, this wasn’t enough and Miriam died of kidney cancer in 1993, which is thought to have been as a result of the experimentation she underwent during her time in Auschwitz, as she was given injections which stunted the growth of her kidneys, meaning she was a fully grown woman with the kidney function of a ten year old girl. 

Years on Eva began to share her story, to expose the lies that people were told, through propaganda, about life in the concentration camps - through this she was given many opportunities to speak at different events and once met one of the Nazi guards, Dr. Hans Hunch, who was working at the time of her being a prisoner in the camps. In one of the possibly most controversial actions of all time, she greeted this man with open arms, embracing him in a hug and a kiss - this sparked debate across the world as to why she was forgiving someone who contributed to the death of millions of innocent people.

This was when Eva Mozes Kor spoke, arguably, some of the wisest words, she says that she believes that forgiveness is a letting go of sorts which she personally chose to do, she makes it clear that she is not speaking on behalf of all those affected, also that her forgiveness doesn’t excuse their actions and they should still be held entirely responsible for those - but her opinion is that in order to move on and make the world a better place forgiveness is key. 

She goes on to speak about some of the discussions she had with German people, who had Nazi ancestry, at the venues she spoke at, and how they felt guilty to be German because of their history. How some mothers didn’t have kids because they didn’t want another generation of Germans, feeling guilty for being German. She speaks about a time where she was running an annual trip to Auschwitz and noticed a group of high school aged girls who were visibly upset and distressed about the history they were seeing around them; she approached them and said ‘You don’t have to feel guilty’ and went on to tell them that none of what they were seeing was their responsibility, but that they were now in the privileged position to ‘be a witness, prevent this from ever happening again. Your duty is to go and make the world a better place’, Eva urged young people to ‘use their beautiful minds’ in order to continue to the education about the Holocaust.

‘Anger and hate are seeds that germinate war. Forgiveness is a seed for peace. It is the ultimate act of self healing’ - Eva alludes to the fact that her forgiveness of the Nazis was for her own peace of mind, to help her move forward in her life and pursue the rest of it to its full potential without being tied down by hatred of things she simply could now do nothing about; her forgiveness allowed her to have an impact on the future instead of trying to change the past.

She hoped to teach young people the life lessons she has learnt through all she has survived and been through: 

1. Never give up on yourself or your dream, for everything good in life is possible.

2. Judge people for their actions and the content of their character

3. Forgive your worst enemy and forgive everyone who has hurt you -- it will heal your soul and set you free

Through these three lessons, Eva hoped to help people live their lives to the fullest through forgiveness:

'I hope in some small way to send the world a message of peace, a message of hope, a message of

healing. Let there be no more wars, no more experiments without informed consent, no more gas chambers, no more bombs, no more hatred, no more killing, no more Auschwitzes.' (from Eva Mozes Kor's speech at Declaration of Amnesty, 50th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz)