On Friday of this past week I met a superhero: Eva Kor. Mrs. Kor is a holocaust survivor and former victim of Josef Mengele and his infamous and ghoulish medical tests. Now in her eighties, Eva eloquently told a spellbound audience about her imprisonment at Auschwitz with her twin sister. They were 10. She told of her many encounters with Mengele, of their eventual liberation, and her subsequent life of recovery, forgiveness, and unfathomable determination.

Here are a few almost direct quotations. When your heart is simultaneously grieving and rejoicing as mine was, it’s difficult to take perfect notes:

• Never give up on yourself or your dreams.
• Ask yourself everyday what you can do to make the world a better place.
• Do whatever is possible to get rid of all prejudice in your life.
• Discover for yourself that you have the power to forgive.
• Refuse to be a good victim. Rather forgive. Forgiveness is the best revenge. If I could forgive Mengele I knew I could forgive everyone.
• Forgiveness is the best revenge: it works and it has no side effects.
• Forgiveness is about you and it has nothing to do with the perpetrators.
• People who forgive are at peace with the world.

Posted on May 13, 2018 at 7:46 am in Boundaries, Difficult Relationships, Forgiveness, Grace, Grief   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL