A woman who survived a World War II death camp and sadistic genetic experimentation by the Nazis will tell her story in an MTSU-sponsored event set for Tuesday, Nov. 14,

Eva Mozes Kor, co-author of “Surviving the Angel of Death” with Lisa Rojany Buccieri, will speak at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 14 in the auditorium of Central Magnet School at 701 E. Main St. in Murfreesboro.

The event is free and open to the public. Because of the graphic nature of the discussion, it is recommended for ages 13 and up.

Kor and her identical twin, Miriam, were held captive in the notorious Auschwitz death camp from 1944 to 1945, when the Soviet army liberated them.

Eva Mozes Kor

They and 1,499 other sets of twins interned at Auschwitz were subjected to experiments under the direction of Josef Mengele, the so-called “Angel of Death.”

Mengele’s gruesome treatment of twins in the guise of science included amputating limbs without anesthesia, stitching twins together and injecting chemicals into their eyes to change their eye color.

Though Kor and her twin survived their ordeal and led a children’s freedom march out of the camp, their parents and two older sisters died at Auschwitz. The pair returned home to Romania and eventually made their way to Israel, where Miriam married and raised her family.

Kor, an Israeli Army officer, married a fellow Holocaust survivor and moved with him to Terre Haute, Indiana, the hometown of the U.S. soldier who’d liberated him.

In 1984, Kor and Miriam Mozes Zieger founded Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors, or CANDLES. Through their efforts, 122 other living Mengele twins were located.

Zieger died in 1993, but Kor returned to Auschwitz in 1995, 50 years after their liberation, to sign a “declaration of amnesty” officially forgiving all Holocaust perpetrators and Nazi sympathizers.

Auschwitz survivors Eva Mozes Kor, left, and her identical twin sister, Miriam Mozes Zieger, are shown in 1949 in Romania, four years after Soviet troops liberated the concentration camp where they were held captive and subjected to scientific experimentation from 1944 to 1945. The women went on to live in Israel, marry and have families, and establish the Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors organization. (Photo submitted)

Kor, now 83, worked with state legislators in 2007 on a law requiring Holocaust education in Indiana secondary schools. She lectures nationwide on the power of forgiveness.

Kor will sign free copies of her book, “Surviving the Angel of Death,” after the presentation.

MTSU’s Jewish and Holocaust Studies Program, the Tennessee Holocaust Commission and the MTSU Department of English are sponsoring her visit.

For more information, contact Dr. Elyce Helford, professor of English and director of the Jewish and Holocaust Studies Program, at 615-898-5961 or elyce.helford@mtsu.edu.

— Gina K. Logue (gina.logue@mtsu.edu)