Analysis Of Eva Kor Anger Is A Seed For Peace

“Anger is a seed for war. Forgiveness is a seed for peace” (About forgiveness). This courageous quote is from Eva Kor. Eva Kor and her twin sister, Miriam, were born in 1934 in Romania. Kor’s village was occupied by Nazi troops in 1940. Her family lived under occupation until 1944 when they were transported to a local ghetto. A few weeks after their arrival at the ghetto, her family was packed into a cattle cart and shipped to Auschwitz-Birkenau (Eva Kor – Candles). At Auschwitz-Birkenau, Eva and Miriam were taken from their family and forced to participate in the Mengele experiments. Mengele performed experiments on thousands of kids and the majority of them died. However, Eva and Miriam were able to stay alive long enough to see liberation

It is a means of self-liberation and self-empowerment” (About forgiveness – Candles). This is a quote from Eva Kor. Forgiving those perpetrators involved in the Holocaust is a highly debated topic. However, Kor saw it as a necessity for herself to be liberated from the pain. Kor stated that, “I forgave the Nazis not because they deserved it but because I deserved it” (Forgiving the Nazis). Another quote from Kor explains the complex nature of forgiveness, “The day I forgave the Nazis, privately I forgave my parents whom I hated all my life for not having saved me from Auschwitz. Children expect their parents to protect them; mine couldn’t. And then I forgave myself for hating my parents” (Forgiving the Nazis). The public display of forgiveness allowed Kor to remove hate and negativity that accumulated throughout her life. This will allow people to be liberated in a healthy and meaningful way, like Kor was. There are physical health benefits of forgiving. After granting forgiveness people have lower blood pressure, sleep better, need fewer medications, and overall, feel better physically (John Hopkins). The physical and emotional health benefits that forgiveness offers can change a survivor’s life for the