Surviving the Angel of Death
Autobiography by Eva Moses Kor and Lisa Rojany Buccieri
Summaries
One
Eve Mozes Kor has written a moving account of the capacity of the human spirit to forgive. The author, who was subjected daily to horrible physical abuse at Auschwitz concentration camp, found the determination to survive. Her parents and two older sisters died in the gas chambers, but twin sisters Eva and Miriam Mozes became part of Josef Mengele?s cruel medical experiments at Auschwitz concentration camp. Of the approximately 3,000 twins who were part of these sadistic studies, only 200 survived.
Two
Kor relates memories of life in the village of Portz, Transylvania (Romania), where she was raised on a large farm, "never aware of the anti-Semitism [that pervaded the country] until 1940, when the Hungarian army came." Six-year-old Eva and her identical twin, Miriam, the only Jewish children in their small mixed-grade classroom, suddenly found themselves taunted and beaten by once-friendly classmates. At 10 years of age, the twins and their family were forced to live among seven thousand other Jews in a fenced-in field, protected from the elements only by tents made of their own blankets and sheets and by the clothes on their backs. They were soon taken on a four-day train ride to Auschwitz, standing all the way, with no food or drink. There the sisters were "selected" to be victims of Dr. Josef Mengele's medical "research." Eva's amazing fortitude and her desire to protect her sister helped her to survive a horrible disease brought on by an injection. Both twins endured a terrifying daylong separation during a forced march between camps; the remaining Auschwitz prisoners were liberated by Soviet soldiers, and the girls found a way to go home in search of family survivors.
About the Author
Kor has publicly forgiven the Nazis and spends much of her life educating people on the Holocaust through her museum and lectures.
Founded organization to reunite survivors of Nazi experiments
Has lived in the US since 1960 and been a citizen since 1965
Follow her on Twitter @EvaMozesKor
Critics' Words
unusual because it details life in the concentration camp through the eyes of a child who lived among children
an inspirational true story of a child's experience during the Holocaust and of the love of family that enabled her to survive
writing is clear and straightforward, adding an authentic and relevant first-person voice to the literature