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15 Works 569 Members 44 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Includes the name: Eva Mozes Kor

Works by Eva Mozes Kor

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Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Kor, Eva Mozes
Birthdate
1934-01-30
Date of death
2019-07-04
Gender
female
Nationality
Romania
Birthplace
Port, Romania
Place of death
Krakow, Poland
Places of residence
Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp
Cluj, Romania
Terre Haute, Indiana, USA
Israel
Occupations
Holocaust survivor
memoirist
Relationships
Zeiger, Miriam Mozes (twin sister)
Organizations
Holocaust Museum
Candles Holocaust Museum and Education Center
Short biography
Eva Mozes Kor and her identical twin sister Miriam Mozes were born to a Jewish family in the tiny village of Porţ, Romania (later Hungary). Her parents, Alexander and Jaffa Mozes, had 4 daughters and enjoyed a comfortable living as landowners and farmers. When Eva and Miriam were six years old, at the start of World War II, their village was occupied by a Hungarian Nazi armed guard. In 1944, after four years of Nazi occupation, the family was transported to the ghetto in Şimleu Silvaniei. A few weeks later, they were put into a cattle car and transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Eva and Miriam were separated from the rest of their family and never saw them again. They became part of a group of children used as human subjects in genetic experiments under the direction of Josef Mengele. They survived this horror and were liberated by the Red Army in January 1945. They were sent to three different refugee camps over the next nine months before going to live with their aunt in Romania. The sisters emigrated to Israel in 1950. Eva joined a kibbutz and attended an agricultural school. She became a sergeant major in the Israeli Army Engineering Corps. She met Michael Kor, another Holocaust survivor and an American tourist, in Israel, and the couple were married in 1960 and went to live in the USA. In 1985, 40 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, Eva Mozes Kor, Miriam Mozes, and other survivors conducted a mock trial of Josef Mengele that received international news coverage. She published her memoirs, Echoes from Auschwitz: Dr. Mengele's Twins: The Story of Eva and Miriam Mozes (1995) with Mary Wright, and Surviving the Angel of Death: The Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz (2009) with Lisa Rojany Buccieri. The Candles Holocaust Museum she founded in Terre Haute, Indiana, was destroyed in 2003 by arsonists believed to be white supremacists, but was rebuilt.

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Reviews

This book was overall very interesting, and of course I cared deeply for the protagonist, Eva, who was exceedingly birght and talented. I also liked the messages Eva was able to offer. However,this book is too frightening in its details for children 8-12, especially in light of the present political situation in the U.S. and other parts of the world. My 11 year old grandaughter asked me to read this, and I look forward to discussing it with her. Both Eva's memory and her will to survivie are amazing! And so much that happened was so much more complex than what was presented, I am sorry that innocent people may have been maligned and that the Resistance and Partisans were just mentioned in passing.… (more)
½
 
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suesbooks | 2 other reviews | Mar 27, 2023 |
After seeing an exhibit at the Indiana Historical Society featuring a hologram of Eva Kor answering questions about her life, I wanted to know more about her story. This book is a slim 140 pages and was a perfect way to explore her experience in her own words. From the prosperous farm she grew up on with her twin sister to their persecution for their Jewish faith, it was a heartbreaking tale. Time after time she almost died in Auschwitz, but she survived in order to save her sister. One memorable moment was when she spoke about raising her children in Indiana. She survived a death camp, communist rule in Romania after the war, serving in the Israeli army, and moving to a new country where she didn't speak the language. All of that to be harassed by teens in the community who painted swastikas on her home. My heart broke for her. Her unbelievable choice to forgive the Nazi doctors who experimented on her is shocking and inspiring.

"At Auschwitz dying was so easy. Surviving was a full-time job."
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½
 
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bookworm12 | 38 other reviews | Jan 18, 2023 |
At the age of 10, Eva and her twin sister Miriam were pulled off the tracks of Auschwitz by Dr. Mengele. They never saw their parents or siblings again. Subjected to medical experiments, the twins never know what shots they were being given and for what purpose. Determined to survive, Eva and Miriam clung to one another. After liberation, the twins were reunited with distant family and forced to live with the trauma they had experienced. As an adult, Eva became a proponent of forgiveness, often defending and fighting for her beliefs.

I read this novel years ago. It was just as touching and heartbreaking the second time around. I admire Eva's spirit of forgiveness and her desire to live her best life. I also understand why forgiving Nazi's could be controversial. Overall, the novel was well written and engaging. It does not go into graphic detail, which makes for a good middle grade or young adult novel. Highly recommended.
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JanaRose1 | 38 other reviews | Aug 24, 2022 |
Wow. Every once in a while, you read a book that pierces you through the heart and changes it forever. Being a true story and dealing with the Holocaust, I knew this story would be emotional, but I truly didn’t expect it to affect me as strongly as it did. Learning of Eva Mozes Kor’s story and so many others like her, is as life-changing and heroic as Anne Frank’s story.

Before reading I WILL PROTECT YOU, I knew little about Dr. Mengele (known as The Angel of Death) and his genetic experiments and research on the young twin prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp. I’m baffled how he (and the countless other Nazis) could hate and hurt others so deeply and without remorse.

Although Eva and her twin sister Miriam were so young, they showed extraordinary strength and determination to survive the evil camp, but that’s not where the story ends. The healing that takes place afterwards gives the story a resolution of astonishing hope.

This book is painful to read. It tells of ungodly, horrific acts, but does so in as gracious a way as it can. But the antisemitism, indoctrination, death camps, selection process, gas chambers, and pure evil against humans by other humans like Mengele, Hitler, etc., sickens me.

I’m glad Eva was able to educate people on what happened at the concentration camps and to contribute to this book before her unexpected death while on one of her yearly trips to Auschwitz in 2019.

Disclosure: #CoverLoverBookReview received a complimentary copy of this book.
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CoverLoverBookReview | 2 other reviews | May 14, 2022 |

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Works
15
Members
569
Popularity
#43,981
Rating
4.1
Reviews
44
ISBNs
39
Languages
7
Favorited
1

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