Eva Mozes Kor Quotes

Getting even has never healed a single person.

At Auschwitz dying was so easy. Surviving was a full time job.

forgiveness is not so much for the perpetrator, but for the victim.

So I am saying to you, whoever is reading this book, to remember: never ever give up. You can survive and make your dreams come true.

Every night I had nightmares. I dreamed of rats the size of cats, dead bodies, and needles stuck into me. After we found out that the Nazi's had made soup out of Jewish fat, I dreamed that soap bars spoke to me in the voices of my parents and sisters, asking me, "Why are you washing with us?

Anger and hate are seeds that germinate war. Forgiveness is a seed for peace. It is the ultimate act of self-healing.

Until that moment I had stopped thinking about my family. Maybe it was due to the bread we ate each evening that supposedly contained not only sawdust but a powder called bromide that made us forget memories of home, a sedative of some kind. Whatever it was or was not, I could not feel sorry for myself, for Miriam, for anyone. I could not think of myself as a victim, or I knew I would perish. It was simple. For me, there was no room for any thought except survival.

Mrs. Goldenthal's twin boys, Alex and Erno, were our age, and I discovered that they had been selected at Auschwitz for Mengele's experiments like us. Mrs. Goldenthan had stayed with them, and I found out later that she had hidden a younger child, Margarita, underneath her long skirt. She had come into the camp with the child hidden in her dress and during her entire stay there, even in the Nazi barracks where she had kept Margarita under the mattress during inspections, she and the other women had helped conceal the child.

Because we were twins, we clung to each other. Because we were sisters, we depended on each other. Because we were family, we did not let go.

This place was confusing and noisy. People were yelling. There were screams. Confusion. Desperation. Barking. Orders. Crying, crying, crying. The crying of children for parents. The crying of parents for their babies. The crying of people confused and bewildered. The crying of people who saw with certainty that their nightmares had come true. All together the cries resounded with the ultimate and most unimaginable pain of human loss, emotional grief and suffering.

It is not so easy to move on when your sleep is full of nightmarish memories.

Children are very sensitive to their surroundings, the atmosphere, though adults always think their children are unaware of things that they aren’t told.

One day, our math book contained this problem: “If you had five Jews, and you killed three Jews, how many Jews would be left?

I learned that I could not always trust adults to tell the truth, especially if the truth was bad.

Anger is a seed for war; forgiveness is a seed for peace.

Over time, I could see that prisoners who had someone in the camp to care about— whether a relative, friend, or neighbor—were more likely to survive. The prisoners who had no one did not last.

At Auschwitz dying was so easy. Surviving was a full-time job.

La ira y el odio son semillas que hacen germinar guerra.

Los granos se nos enterraron en la piel de las rodillas, pero eso no fue lo que más nos lastimó.

He was covered with whip marks, oozing blood. They had burned his fingernails and toenails with the flame of candles. It took him many days to recover.

Furia si ura sunt semintele care germineaza razboi. Iertarea este samanta pacii. Este actul suprem al autovindecarii.

But here the stink was over-powering. It was as if you walked through it, around in it. It was everywhere and inescapable. I did not find out right away what the smell really was.

In the darkness I heard a whistle, a car, or motorcycle going by. Noises of marching, moaning, vomiting, barking and crying punctuated the hush of camp - an orchestra accompanying the pervasive human misery.