Surviving the Angel of Death - The Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz
by Eva Moses Kor and Lisa Rejany Buccierri is a very moving account of what it was like to be at age ten to be taken with your family from a comfortable farm in Romania to Auschwitz. Upon arrival a guard asks her if her two younger daughters are twins. The guard tells her it will be good for them so she says yes. The parents and siblings of the twins are sent to their death, Doctor Mengele takes the girls to his Laboratory. He uses twins to preform horrible experiments. For example one twin may be infected with a disease and once she dies, the other twin will be killed for study. Eva’s sister was given a medication that kept her kidneys from growing beyond her tenth year. Dr. Mengele told Eva her sister would be dead in two weeks but she survived, thanks to the dedication of Eva bringing her food. The twins called stealing from the Germans, “organising”.
The book gives us a full picture of life in the lab. The twins got more food and were treated better than slave labourers as Dr. Mengele wanted them kept alive.
It was very exciting when Russian troops, some Jewish, liberated the camp. The girls big concern was finding out about their parents and siblings. After spending time in Displaced Persons Camps and helped by Jewish Relief Organisations they return to their farm in Hungary, once they saw how bad things were they knew their parents must be dead. The government, under Soviet Rule, had confiscated almost all their land. The twins are taken in by aunt.
You can read this work in under two hours so I will tell no more of their lives other than say this is wonderful story. Ms. Kor’s message is forgiveness. She is dedicated to Holocaust education.
This book was written to e accessible to young adult readers but all into the Holocaust will be very glad they read this book.
In the interest of full disclosure I was kindly given a copy of this book.
Eva Mozes Kor is a resident of Terre Haute, IN. She founded an organization for surviving Mengele twins in 1985, and helped to pressure governments to search for Josef Mengele. In 1995, she opened a small Holocaust museum in Terre Haute, which has grown into the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center, at which she continues to give presentations and tours, especially to school-aged children. She is a recognized speaker, both nationally and internationally, on topics related to the Holocaust, medical ethics, forgiveness, and peace. She has been covered in numerous media outlets, including “60 Minutes” and “20/20,” and is the subject of a documentary, Forgiving Dr. Mengele.
CANDLES is an acronym for Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors. CANDLES, Inc. was founded in 1984 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization by Eva Mozes Kor with help from her twin sister, Miriam Mozes Zieger, to launch an effort to locate other surviving Mengele twins. As a result of their efforts, Eva and Miriam were able to locate 122 individual Mengele twins living in ten countries and four continents. The search for more twins continues to this day.
Through the lens of the Holocaust, visitors of all ages can learn about the consequences of choices, the importance of never giving up, the dangers of prejudice, and the need for genocide prevention today. Our permanent exhibit, "Choices: The Holocaust Through Eva's Story," details the story of Eva Kor, Holocaust survivor and Mengele Twin, from before the war and through the rise of Nazism, to surviving the Auschwitz concentration camp and her journey of forgiveness.
In 1995, Eva opened the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute. In 2003, the museum was firebombed by an arsonist and burned to the ground. With support from the community and organizations, a new museum building opened in 2005 and remains an important part of the community today. The museum draws increasing numbers of visitors every year, many coming from long distances.
Lisa Rojany Buccieri has written over 100 children’s books, including several award-winning and bestselling titles. She is also a publishing executive and editor with over 20 years of experience in the industry, and is the lead writer for Writing Children’s Books for Dummies. As well as spearheading four publishing startups, Lisa has simultaneously run her own business, Editorial Services of L.A. She has been Editorial/Publishing Director for Golden Books, Price Stern Sloan/Penguin Group USA, Intervisual Books, Gateway Learning Corp (Hooked on Phonics), and Intervisual Books. Lisa lives with her family in Los Angeles. She may be contacted at www.EditorialServicesofLA.com
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