Eva Mozes Kor put out a documentary in 2006 entitled, Forgiving Dr. Mengele. Mrs. Kor and her twin were survivors of the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, Germany. There, thousands of Jewish twins were experimented on by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. He was known as the Angel of Death. There, 4 other members of Eva Kor’s family were exterminated. After the war, Mrs. Mozes got married, served in the Israeli army, and founded an organization called CANDLES: Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experi­ments Survivors. She also had 2 children.

After WW2, Josef Mengele moved to South America. He moved around to various countries, always on the lookout for Nazi hunters. Despite evidence of Dr. Mengele still being alive, most of the world did not consider his capture and being brought back to Germany for the crimes he committed, a priority. However, his life was nothing like that portrayed in the Boys from Brazil or any other Hollywood movie. He was not a globe-trotting bon-vivant in white daper suits. He lived in constant fear, always on the run, always suspicious of other people. He probably always heard the screaming and saw the death he caused whenever he closed his eyes. He finally had a heart attack and drowned at an advanced age in 1979 (here is a whole video from Youtube about him: Angel Of Death: The Nazi Doctor Who Experimented On Humans | Nazi Hunters | War Stories – YouTube).

However, Mrs. Kor kept on living until 2019. She attributed her long life to the fact that she forgave Dr. Mengele, hence the name of her documentary. She attended and was part of many events in which she shared her documentary and talked about moving on. For this, she was highly criticized by other survivors.

According to the BBC (Eva Kor: Auschwitz survivor of Mengele Nazi torture dies – BBC News) In 2015, she went to the German trial of former Auschwitz guard Oskar Gröning, known as the book-keeper of Auschwitz. She approached Gröning and held his hand. He responded by kissing her on the cheek. I am sure she was highly criticized for this too.

She went on to found another Holocaust museum in 1995 in Terra Haute Indiana (of all places).

She saw horrors beyond reasoning at the death camps. Truly, she could have been bitter the rest of her life. While she had medical issues the rest of her life, it was Mengele whose lifetime was shattered by his own actions. She lived by the idea that hating someone is ingesting poison and expecting the other person to die!

One of her famous quotes is:

“Anger and hate are seeds that germinate war. Forgiveness is a seed for peace. It is the ultimate act of self-healing.”

Truly, our Lord calls us to forgive others who have cruelly hurt us, for a good reason!

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

—————————————————————————————–W.