[Note from KMM: Guest author Elina Tochilnikova graduated from Boston University where she was a member of the Group on International Perspectives on Governmental Aggression and Peace (GIPGAP) and a contributing author to a chapter on Russia in State Violence and the Right to Peace. She has recently worked on 3 short documentary films on the forgiveness processes of Holocaust survivors.]
Eva Mozes Kor, a “Mengele Twin” who survived the genetic experiments at Auschwitz, chose the non-standard route to recovery: forgiveness.
For this she failed to win acceptance from the survivor community. As have her predecessors and contemporaries in social change, she has had to define her own path, and in that, defined herself.
In 2010, with the assistance of Boston College Professor Dr. John Michalczyk, I interviewed Eva. She explained that in 1993 she was offered an opportunity to meet with former Auschwitz Nazi doctor Hans Munch, a former colleague of the infamous Josef Mengele. Although emotionally wrought by the prospect, she flew to Germany to interview him and gather information on the deadly human medical experiments.
Unexpectedly, Dr. Munch welcomed Eva; she states “he treated me like a human being and shared useful information.” Furthermore, he expressed deep and sincere remorse, disclosing his psychological torment ever since his work in the camps.
As an expression of gratitude, Eva wrote a letter of forgiveness to Dr. Munch. Through this process, Eva discovered that she, “the guinea pig of the angel of death,” had the power to forgive even Dr. Mengele himself, and everyone else who had ever hurt her, including her parents toward whom she had harbored resentment about their not being able to protect her.
Eva states: “As soon as I forgave, I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders … I felt that I had the power to forgive and that no one could take that power away from me.”
On 13 occasions since meeting Dr. Munch, Eva has visited Auschwitz, where she has met with former Nazis as part of a forgiveness ceremony.
Eva Kor remains the spearhead of the concept of forgiveness as an act of self-healing. She opened the Candles Holocaust Museum, produced films, and led programs teaching forgiveness in schools worldwide. In addition, her films and interviews are used to help patients heal following emotional trauma. Thus, she has combined her motto of “heal the world” with tangible steps that can prove useful in recovery from trauma.
