Holocaust survivor visits Bloomington

Eva Moses Kor recounts a scene of 10 to 20 sets of twins standing naked in an observation room, their limbs and body parts compared to each other. In a larger room, 20 to 30 more sets of twins could be found with rubber hoses tied around their arms to cut off circulation; blood was drawn to see how much a person could lose and still live.\n"And this only happened for one reason," Kor said. "We were born Jewish."\nKor, a native of Transylvania, Hungary, and current resident of Terre Haute, survived these and other deadly medical experiments performed on her and her twin sister, Miriam, at Poland's Auschwitz concentration camp by the "Angel of Death," Josef Mengele. \nHer story was documented in the Batchelor Middle School production "Evil Exposed -- the Tragedy of the Holocaust," featured along with personal accounts of other Holocaust survivors, including Bloomington residents Lola and Jacob Goldberg. The presentation of the award-winning eighth grade documentary was part of the Tuesday event "Eva Moses Kor and the CANDLES Museum -- The Bloomington Community Response," held at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater Tuesday night. The event served as a medium for community reaction to the November 2003 arson of Kor's Terre Haute CANDLES Museum (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Experiments Survivors), a memorial to the millions of lives lost in the Holocaust. \nIn early 1944, Kor's parents and two older sisters were detained and killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz. She and her twin sister survived, only to be subjected to medical experiments performed only on sets of twins. Victims were injected with germs and chemicals, and in an effort to populate the world with blonde-haired and blue-eyed "superior beings," Nazis would inject dye into the eyes of brown-eyed children to see if they could change. Kor noted that, thankfully, her eyes are blue.\nBut despite these and other horrors, Kor said she's forgiven everybody, including the Nazis and Mengele for the wrong done to her and her family. It was along with this message of forgiveness and understanding that she wished to impart her knowledge and memories of the Holocaust to others through the founding of the CANDLES Museum.\n"In the long run, it is only education that can make a difference and change people's characters," Kor said.\nMembers of various local and school communities spoke at the event to give their thanks to Kor, including Doug Bauder, coordinator of IU's Office of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Support Services, Charlotte Zietlow, economic coordinator for Middle Way House, Inc., Linda Maule with Terre Haute United Against Hate and Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan. \n"It's important for us to never forget," Kruzan said. "It is important to educate, and CANDLES was, is and will be most important."\nKruzan presented Kor with an award announcing that the city of Bloomington recognizes February 10 as Eva Moses Kor Day in honor of her efforts to eradicate social injustice.\nAfterward, Peggy Chambers, principal of Batchelor Middle School, introduced the students and teachers responsible for the production of the internationally-recognized documentary.\nBrady Jones, a student involved in the production, took to the podium on behalf of his peers, saying they "wanted to capture how hate can hurt people and have a bad impact on people in society." He then outlined his and other students' efforts to collect donations for the rebuilding of a larger museum so that others might be educated on the historic meaning and value of sharing the stories of the Holocaust.\nKor took to the stage and described her own personal faults in exemplifying prejudice. \n"Even I, a survivor of hatred and prejudice, admit that I am prejudiced," Kor said. \nShe joked of her experiences with speaking in schools and described "boys with pony-tails" and "those infamous baggy pants," kicking the audience into laughter.\n"But I've met some kids in baggy pants that never use drugs, and they're smart people," she said. "So even I have to work at it."\nBonnie Gordon-Lucas, a Bloomington resident, was among those who gathered to hear Kor's message.\n"I came to be with the people who put this together, and I wanted to meet Eva," Gordon-Lucas said. "I'm impressed. I found the documentary moving and especially love that the children are involved. You know, they can either choose to do the right or wrong thing. In this case, they've found a way to do something very good for a lot of people."\n-- Contact staff writer Jackie Corgan at jcorgan@indiana.edu.