Eva Mozes Kor, a Romanian Holocaust survivor who spent four decades advocating forgiveness, has died at age 85 — during an annual trip to the site of the Nazi regime’s most notorious death camp.
Kor was sent to Auschwitz, in German-occupied Poland, in 1944 with her twin sister. Both girls survived the camp, but Kor’s sister died in 1993 of health problems blamed on the medical experiments they were forced to undergo while imprisoned.
Kor began lecturing about her experiences in the camp in 1978. Her advocacy of forgiveness — in her words, “forgiveness is the best revenge” — made her an enemy to some, who labeled her a traitor to her people. But her supporters praised her as a visionary.
Kor’s advocacy group, known as CANDLES, announced Thursday that she had died “peacefully” during her annual pilgrimage to Auschwitz.
CANDLES — a group for people who had suffered medical experiments in the death camps — said in a statement, “We hope Eva’s story continues to change the lives of those who hear it for many years to come.”
