Israel Matzav: Survivor forgives Mengele for 'experiments' he performed on her

Survivor forgives Mengele for 'experiments' he performed on her

JTA reports on Auschwitz survior Eva Kor for 'experiments' that he performed on her in Auschwitz during the war.

Kor says she has forgiven Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who conducted experiments on her and her twin sister, Miriam, at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

This week, Kor led 55 American teachers and students on a trip to her former place of torment, where she was liberated exactly 65 years ago.

“Here I am, this little guinea pig from Auschwitz, and I have the power to forgive Josef Mengele! And he can’t do anything about it,” the diminutive, energetic woman who will turn 76 on Saturday said this week at Auschwitz. “I stopped being a victim, and that makes me a very powerful person.”

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Her forgiveness, too, has its limits.

“If I see anyone who wants to advocate ideas of Nazism, I cannot forgive them,” she said. “And Israel cannot go to guys who are blowing up pizza places or weddings and say we love and forgive you. No.”

Kor’s outspoken forgiveness of Mengele, which she said she decided on in 1995 to free herself, has not been without controversy.

In 2007, the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors called it “abhorrent to forgive this monster, Josef Mengele,” and the group’s president said other Mengele twins were very upset with Kor for talking about forgiveness.

“There will be no forgiveness for him, only a searing memory of how human beings should not behave toward their fellows,” the group said in a statement.

Kor says withholding forgiveness locks them in victimhood.

“If they like being victims, it’s their choice,” Kor said. “I don’t want to be a victim ever again.”

On Jan. 26, standing on the icy steps of a barracks in Auschwitz, Kor recalled seeing Russian Red Army soldiers approaching through whirling snow 65 years ago.

“They were smiling,” she remembers. “They gave us hugs, and chocolate and cookies. And it tasted wonderful."

I got this article via Jeff Jacoby's Twitter feed. Jeff points out, correctly, that although Kor is within her rights to forgive Mengele for herself, she cannot forgive him for anyone else.

Israel Matzav: Survivor forgives Mengele for 'experiments' he performed on her