Forgiveness

As human beings, many of us have experienced moments of betrayal, being let down, times when we have been hurt. Then others have experienced something much harsher, something that tore at them physically and mentally, something that took an inner strength and determination to survive, something that caused the death of many - families, friends, strangers.

Meet EVA MOZES KOR. She was born in 1934 in Romania, one of twins. Her family is Jewish. After her village had been occupied for some years by Nazi guards, and in 1944, her family ended up on a transport to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Since they were twins, she and her sister Miriam were separated out and became part of the cruel twins experiments run by Josef Mengele. Although she endured severe illness, almost to the point of death, she survived and inspired Miriam to survive. Both were among the survivors liberated from the camp by the Soviet army.


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By 1960, Eva and Michael Kor were married and moved to the US. After viewing the "Holocaust" miniseries in 1978, she became interested finding out about the lives of the children who had survived Josef Mengeles' twin experiments. In 1984, she founded Children of Auschwitz Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors (CANDLES), which also led to the CANDLES HOLOCAUST MUSEUM AND EDUCATION CENTER.

Approximately 50 years after Auschwitz was liberated, Eva publicly announced that she had forgiven the Nazis, saying, "People who forgive are at peace with themselves and with the world". She had always believed and hoped in her survival because, "there is always hope after despair. There is always life after disaster". In forgiving her tormentors, Eva made a decision to stop being a victim and to let go of grievances.

And so, we come to what forgiveness really means. "Forgiveness is the ability to no longer be a victim. It is the path towards becoming a survivor. On that path there will be hardships and times where it is okay to fall, but the pinnacle to truly forgiving someone for harming you can lead to remarkable and unexpected places." (from below article).

Eva today next to liberation of Auschwitz picture. She's on right and sister Miriam is in middle.

Thanks to this article from the Kindness Blog: http://kindnessblog.com/2015/01/02/forgiveness-is-free-lessons-from-a-holocaust-survivor-by-tyler-tucky/ and wikipedia.

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