MOUNT VERNON — Is forgiveness an act of reconciliation between victim and perpetrator, or is it an act of self-healing for the victim?
Is it fair to forgive on behalf of others? Is it easier to forgive the dead than to forgive those who are still in conflict with us? Is it ever wrong to forgive, or simply impossible? Do victims harm only themselves when they can’t forgive?
These difficult questions were addressed, discussed and — ultimately — left unanswered when the film “Forgiving Dr. Mengele” was shown as the third installment in Mount Vernon Nazarene University’s Lecture/Artist Series on “Reconciliation and the Kingdom of God” on Tuesday evening.
The film — which mixes contemporary interviews with stark black-and-white photos from the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination-concentration camps in Poland — tells the story of Eva Mozes Kor, born a twin in Transylvania, Romania. It begins with her family’s incarceration at Auschwitz, the haven for Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, “The Angel of Death” who conducted hideous experiments on prisoners, particularly twins.
“Twins are the ideal control group,” explains Kor in the film. “He was brilliant and ruthless. His ambition was ideal to his ruthlessness.”
Kor and her twin sister Miriam, at 10 years old were taken from their parents and, the family’s usefulness over, their parents and sisters were executed in one of the camp’s crematoriums. Kor relates the bizarre experiments on the many children now called “Mengele’s twins,” including hours of being measured, examined and tested. Miriam was injected with a substance that stopped the growth of her kidneys, leading to lifelong illness and her death in middle age.
Kor was injected with something that made her deathly ill; Mengele announced that she had two weeks to live. But through an act of her iron will, Kor did not die.
“I had to survive,” she said. “If I died, Miriam would have been killed immediately with an injection to her heart, then we both would have been autopsied. So I refused to die. I would do anything in my power to prove him wrong.”
After the liberation of the camp by the Russian army, Kor and Miriam lived in Israel. Kor married a fellow death camp survivor, they moved to Terre Haute, Ind., and became the parents of three children; she worked in real estate for many years, although getting started was a struggle.
In a humorous segment, Kor tells, in her thick accent, of how she tried many times to join real estate firms until one finally admitted that no one would hire her because “no one could understand me.” Appalled, she retorts, “I survived Auschwitz ... you’re telling me I can’t sell real estate?”
Such tenacity propelled Kor into activism, joining with other survivors and struggling with her own healing. She tells of her decision to visit Auschwitz, believing her healing was progressing well. But, on the Lufthansa flight, she was blindsided by long-buried terror when hearing everyone around her speaking German. Horrified, she was paralyzed by fear and trapped on the plane for the long flight.
That emotional turning point, and her sister’s illness, led her to join the search for Mengele’s records, in the hope they might reveal the substance that destroyed her sister’s kidneys. She sought out Dr. Hans Münch, the only SS doctor who was acquitted of war crimes. Münch revealed that he, too, could not shake memories of the camp.
“I was flabbergasted,” said Kor. “Nazis had nightmares about Auschwitz too?”
She invited Münch to accompany her and other twins to Auschwitz for the 50th anniversary of the camp’s liberation, and to sign a statement of apology. She publicly forgave Münch, but that didn’t exactly endear her to her companions, who were shocked, hurt and furious that Kor appeared to be speaking for them.
This conflict is sustained throughout the entire film, and is never resolved.
“Can one speak on behalf of the many?” asked Rick Williamson, MVNU professor of Biblical Literature, who led a discussion with Rabbi Howard Apothaker of Temple Beth Shalom in New Albany. “Can one grant words of forgiveness if the other party hasn’t said words of contrition?”
Then Kor was challenged by a friend who said, “You forgave Münch, but can you forgive Dr. Mengele?”
She could, and she did. Kor even said the act of forgiving Mengele gave her freedom, liberation and healing. She traveled the world speaking about the experience and urging others to forgive. But others weren’t so sure. The ensuing discussion covers wide territory, ranging through religion, ethics, self-preservation, self-care, justice, history, human rights, the law.
Many in the audience questioned whether forgiveness can be legitimate when granted only for the victim’s sake. Mengele was dead, some pointed out, and could neither repent nor accept forgiveness. The war, the Holocaust are in the past. Does the end of conflict allow forgiveness, and is it possible to forgive before conflict has ended? Kor insists that “Forgiveness has nothing to do with the perpetrator, but has everything to do with the victim, to empower them and let them take back their life.” But is such forgiveness merely cheap grace for the perpetrator?
Kor admits it is easier to forgive the dead than those who are still shooting at one’s family. To her credit, the film includes a difficult segment that explores her resentment of the Palestinian people, her discomfort in their presence and unwillingness to listen to their stories. Invited to meet with Palestinians and attempt reconciliation, Kor found it impossible. At the meeting, she sighs, she squirms, admits she’d rather be somewhere else and even rolls her eyes in contempt.
In other words, Kor is human, and struggles with human nature as everyone else does. She can forgive the dead Mengele, an immoral monster, a psychopath, a man who mutilated children, but she cannot reconcile with Palestinians seated across the table, people into whose eyes she must look.
As one interviewee says in the film, “The Jews got to Palestine [to found Israel] and created a catastrophe for the Palestinians. It’s a very big trauma for Israelis to look, and to say, ‘What have we done?’ It is more than Eva could deal with.”
And yet Kor continues to find her way, speaking on forgiveness, encouraging young people, reminding audiences about the Holocaust, dealing with the destruction of her Holocaust Museum by an arsonist who painted “Remember Timmy McVeigh!” on the wall and the continued criticism of Holocaust survivors who resent her speaking for them.
Apothaker painted a shocking analogy for the MVNU audience’s consideration. What if a gunman entered Thorne Performance Hall and opened fire, killing some immediately and wounding many others? And what if one in the audience stood up and told the gunman, “I forgive you.” What would be the reaction of the innocent people who were bleeding to death?
It was a somber, painful moment, full of unanswerable questions, full of unresolved conflict. Just like “Forgiving Dr. Mengele.”
