A Blessed Encounter
Sandra Fildes | Article and Photograph
“Forgive your worst enemy — it will heal your soul and set you free.” My husband
and I heard these words from an old lady sitting on a walker in the breakfast room
of our Krakow hotel after a wonderful tour of Poland in the summer of 2019. We
conversed while a younger woman with her went to get her some breakfast. I had
seen them in the hotel all week but had been busy with our tours and the people
we were travelling with, all of whom had now left for home.
“Is that your daughter or granddaughter?” I asked the
older woman. The younger woman came back as I spoke,
saying, “No, I’m not her daughter or her granddaughter.
I wish that I was. Do you know who this is? She’s Eva Kor
— an Auschwitz survivor.”
Thus began a conversation with the amazing Eva
Kor and her nurse, Linda. They subsequently invited
my husband and me to join them at their table. Eva
wasn’t feeling too well that morning, and Linda thought
conversation would be good for her. We were glad to visit
with these two fascinating women.
Forty-fi ve minutes later, we left them at the table, having
had the most amazing and educational talk with Eva. She
had given us lessons in survival, hope, and forgiveness.
She recounted how, as a ten-year-old child, she and her
family — Romanian Jews — were put on the train to
Auschwitz in May 1944. They had no idea where they were
going or what would happen to them.
When they arrived at the camp, the guards and a
doctor directed the people on the train in one direction
or another. Eva’s mother answered, “Yes, these girls are
twins,” to the guard’s question. Immediately, her youngest
daughters were sent in the direction of the camp huts and
she and the rest of the family in the other direction. Eva
and her sister Miriam never saw them again.
Eva told us that she was very quickly brought to the
doctor’s hospital — Dr. Mengele’s hospital — where each
day she was injected with unknown drugs in one arm and
had blood taken from her other arm. She had no idea what
the drugs were, but she became very sick and feverish.
With no food or water, but with a tremendous will to live,
she decided that when she was left alone, she would try to
stay alive by dragging herself to a dripping faucet on the
wall. She said over and over to herself, “I will not die, I
will not die.” For two weeks, this routine went on. Much to
20 | arta.net
“Give your family an extra kiss and hug
for those children who had no parents
when they were growing up.” - Eva Kor
Dr. Mengele’s surprise, Eva did not die and was reunited
with her sister, Miriam, who also had been injected with
unknown drugs. Later in the conversation, we learned that
they were left with many health problems. Miriam died
from kidney disease in her fi fties.
The girls were liberated in January 1945 and sent back
to their village to live with their aunt. At sixteen, they left
for Israel, where they both eventually married — Miriam