Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Herrin will host Eva Mozes Kor, one of the Mengele twins who survived the Holocaust, at an evening presentation at 6 p.m. Feb. 18 at the church, 316 W. Monroe St. in Herrin.
Deanna Smillie, advanced literature and religion teacher for sixth-eighth-graders at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School, teaches a unit on the Holocaust each year and gives students the opportunity to visit or meet someone directly connected to the horrific event.
Smillie met Mrs. Kor on a trip to Poland a number of years ago and has stayed in contact with her.
Other OLMC students have visited Mrs. Kor’s museum in Indiana.
This year, students and anyone interested in hearing her are invited to listen to the story of her ordeal and how she has lived her life, including eventually forgiving the Nazis.
Mrs. Kor and her twin sister, Miriam, who died in 1993, were among about 1,500 sets of twins who were subjected to medical experiments at Auschwitz under Josef Mengele, dubbed the “Angel of Death” because so many of the people under his care died because of him and the experiments he conducted.
Fifty years after the camp at Auschwitz was liberated, Mrs. Kor visited the camp and then announced that she had forgiven the Nazis, not for their benefit but for hers.
She continues to speak of forgiveness and peace in her talks.
Now 81, Mrs. Kor makes presentations to groups about her ordeal, her survival and how she carved a future from the experiences of her childhood.
In 1984 she and her sister founded the CANDLES organization: Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors to locate other surviving Mengele twins.
In 1995 she opened the CANDLES Museum and Education Center.
For more information about Eva Mozes Kor, please go to http://candlesholocaustmuseum.org
