{"id":260423,"date":"2017-10-05T08:33:23","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T12:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=260423"},"modified":"2020-12-17T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T17:00:00","slug":"video-of-holocaust-survivor-who-forgave-mengele-goes-viral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/ar\/video-of-holocaust-survivor-who-forgave-mengele-goes-viral\/","title":{"rendered":"Video of Holocaust survivor who forgave Mengele goes viral"},"content":{"rendered":"
RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
The ultimate power: the power to forgive. The only power which makes you free from the past.<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

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A video of a Holocaust survivor explaining why she forgave the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele for experimenting on her has gone viral over the past few weeks.<\/p>\n

Eva Mozes Kor, 83, and her twin sister Miriam were sent to Auschwitz from Romania in 1944. Mengele, known as the \u201cAngel of Death\u201d for his cruel experiments on concentration camp prisoners, added the Kors to the groups of twins he closely monitored and injected with toxic substances.<\/p>\n

The sisters survived the war, but Mengele\u2019s experiments had lasting effects on both of them \u2014 especially Miriam, who eventually contracted kidney problems and later a fatal form of cancer.<\/p>\n

All of that makes the tale Eva Mozes Kor tells in a Buzzfeed video posted last month \u2014 which has\u00a0garnered\u00a0over 130 million views on Facebook \u2014 all the more astonishing.<\/p>\n

In 1993, Kor was asked to visit Boston to tell her story. She contacted the former Nazi doctor Hans Munch \u2014 the only man to be acquitted of war crimes at the 1947 Auschwitz trials, for his refusal to assist in mass murders \u2014 and asked him to go with her. He refused to go to Boston, but the pair would eventually visit Auschwitz together in 1995. She ended up writing him a letter of forgiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know how to thank a Nazi,\u201d she says in the video. \u201cI didn\u2019t tell anybody about it because even to me it sounded strange.\u201d<\/p>\n

In\u00a0JTA profile in 2010, Kor says her decision to forgive Mengele as well helped her overcome her trauma. \u201cHere I am, this little guinea pig from Auschwitz, and I have the power to forgive Josef Mengele! And he can\u2019t do anything about it,\u201d she told JTA. \u201cI stopped being a victim, and that makes me a very powerful person.\u201d<\/p>\n

While fellow Holocaust survivors denounce her actions (in 2015, she\u00a0angered other Auschwitz survivors\u00a0when she said that\u00a0the government should stop prosecuting former SS officers and instead urge them to come forward and publicly share their stories), she found forgiving an act of \u201cliberation\u201d and \u201cself-empowerment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I discovered for myself was life changing,\u201d she says in the video. \u201cI discovered that I had the power to forgive\u2026 As a victim of almost 50 years, I never thought that I had any power over my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video of Holocaust survivor who forgave Mengele goes viral<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n