“I, the victim of Auschwitz, figured out that I had the power to forgive,” Mrs. Kor said. “No one could give it to me and no one could take it away. I, the little guinea pig, had the power to forgive the God of Auschwitz. I immediately felt the pain lift from my shoulders. Finally I was no longer a prisoner of Auschwitz.”
The day following Tisha B’Av (the 9th of Av) commemorating the tragedies of the Jewish people, thirty people participated in our annual Kabbalah Experience Reincarnation workshop. There are a number of books specifically addressing the reincarnation of souls of those who were murdered by the Nazis. “A generation comes and generation goes” is interpreted by Rabbi Akiva as a generation that already has come. In this regard his words pertain to the re-generation of our people from the Holocaust until now.
As I was recounting a number of stories of reincarnation from the Holocaust, my mind and body became very still—perhaps unnoticed by those listening –as a sensation, inchoate at first but then pulsating, entered my consciousness.
For the past few months I have often heard; “so it must be you?”—a second set of twins. Until yesterday I placed no meaning on this. I discounted people’s comments knowing that there is no scientific basis for the genetics of a father having fraternal and identical twins. The blessing of twins I saw as coming from the Divine, if cause was important to discern, it was more spiritual than genetic. It had not gone further than that until yesterday.
The sensation that gripped me as I was teaching was based on knowing that many twins died at Auschwitz through the barbaric medical experimentation of Joseph Mengele and that many of those twin experiments were performed on identical twins. I have a very superficial knowledge of Mengele and his cruelty and of those (mostly children) who suffered terribly and died horrific deaths.
Last night I went on the computer to learn more about the twins who were murdered (a few survived) at Auschwitz. Books titled: Echoes form Auschwitz: Dr. Mengele’s Twins and Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz.
And then I came to Mrs. Kor’s website CANDLES (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Laboratory Experiment Survivors). She and her twin sister founded this educational organization which also established a museum—the Candles Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, Indiana. Go to her website to learn more about her story.
Mrs. Kor’s first name: Eva.
Below is a longer excerpt of Eva Kor’s thoughts on forgiveness:
“I believe with every fiber of my being that every person has the human right to live with or without the pain of the past, and that it is a personal choice. My question is, “How many people would choose to live with pain, when they could heal from it?”
I do believe that this healing is possible through the act of FORGIVENESS. and I believe in FORGIVENESS as the ultimate act of self healing, and self-empowerment. once a person decides to forgive, there is a tremendous feeling of wholeness in thought, spirit and action all moving in the same direction creating a powerful force for healing and freedom.
My forgiving the Nazis is a gift of freedom I gave myself, a gift of peace for myself, it is also a gift of peace for everybody who wants it. Both peace and war begin in the heart and mind of one person. Pain and anger are the SEEDS for WAR. FORGIVENESS is the SEED for PEACE!”
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