CORVALLIS, Ore. -Holocaust survivor Eva Mozes Kor will speak at Oregon State University in Corvallis and in Portland as part of the university's 30th annual observance of Holocaust Memorial Week May 1-6.

Kor, a Rumanian Jew, and her family were transported to Auschwitz in 1944, and her parents and two older sisters were killed in the camp. Kor and her sister Miriam were spared because they were twins. They were turned over to Joseph Mengele, the notorious Nazi doctor, who performed experiments on them and other twins.

After the war ended, Kor spent time in Israel and later immigrated to the U.S., where she settled in Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1984, she founded the organization CANDLES, or Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors, and located 122 other living survivors of the Mengele twin experiments.

She will present the talk "The Triumph of the Human Spirit: From Auschwitz to Forgiveness" at events in Corvallis and Portland. She will speak at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 1, at Congregation Beth Israel, 1972 N.W. Flanders, Portland; and at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 2, in the Austin Auditorium at the LaSells Stewart Center, 875 S.W. 26th St., Corvallis.

Holocaust Memorial Week is presented by the School of History, Philosophy and Religion in OSU's College of Liberal Arts. All events are free and open to the public. The program will include a theme of genocide and a focus on human rights.

Other Holocaust Memorial Week events are: 

  • Close to Home: Eugenics in the United States - and at Oregon State: A panel discussion featuring Kristin Johnson, Linda Richards and Michael Dicianna, focusing on the period from 1900 to 1970, when eugenics, including forced sterilization to eliminate undesirable traits from the gene pool, was taught at Oregon State. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, Construction and Engineering Auditorium in the LaSells Stewart Center.
  • What Have We Learned About Genocide Prevention?: A talk by Professor Scott Straus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison focusing on the causes of genocide and what can be done to reduce the likelihood of genocidal campaigns in the future. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, in the Construction and Engineering Auditorium.
  • Building the Case Against Perpetrators of Genocide: Lawrence Douglas, the James J. Garfield Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College, will discuss how prosecutors gathered and used evidence in the Nuremberg trials and later in the trials of Adolf Eichmann and John Demjanjuk. He will also examine how the trials shaped historical memory. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 5, in the Construction and Engineering Auditorium.
  • Social Justice Conference on Human Rights: Students will read papers and discuss issues relating to dignity at the annual conference. This year's event will focus on immigration and questions of migration, borders, marginality and identity. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, May 6, in the Native American Longhouse Eena Haws, 311 S.W. 26th St., Corvallis.

For more information about the events, visit holocaust.oregonstate.edu.

Source: 

Natalia Bueno, 541-737-8560, [email protected]

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