Holocaust survivor, forgiveness advocate Kor to speak in Hadley series

Eva Kor, Holocaust survivor (Photo provided)

Purdue staff, faculty and students can hear one of Indiana's most remarkable life stories April 24 when Eva Mozes Kor, a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust with a message of forgiveness and self-liberation, speaks in the Richard A. Hadley series presented by APSAC.

Kor, who in 2017 received the Sachem Award, the highest honor of the State of Indiana, has forged a well-known stance as an advocate for human rights and helping victims heal and free themselves from anger and victimhood. This hopeful approach is reflected in her CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, opened in 1995, and her public speeches.

The event at Purdue will be at 6:30 p.m. in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall. It is free to attend, and doors will open at 6 p.m. APSAC, the Administrative and Professional Staff Advisory Committee, chose an evening hour for this year's Hadley presentation to enable more people to come.

Kor, a Romanian Jew by birth, and her twin sister, Miriam, survived imprisonment in the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Mengele experimentation on twins. After moving to Israel in 1950, she met an American and they married in 1960. She became a U.S. citizen in 1965. In 1978, she decided to gather information about surviving Auschwitz twins.

In 1995, she visited Auschwitz and announced her decision to forgiveness the Nazis, not to deny or minimize the past, but for her own well-being. She continues to tell her story and describe how victimhood and bitterness become prisons maintained by the person who carries that attitude. She lifts up healing and strength as a better way.

Kor's story has been documented in several ways, including museum exhibits, books and film. A feature-length documentary titled "Eva A-7063" is to be released this month. More about her life and the CANDLES center is here.

About the Richard A. Hadley APSAC Professional Development Series

The Richard A. Hadley APSAC Professional Development Series presents an event each spring through the efforts of the Professional Development subcommittee of APSAC, the Administrative and Professional Staff Advisory Committee. The event is open to all Purdue staff, faculty, students and their family members. This year’s presentation has been jointly sponsored by the offices of the Provost, Treasurer, and Research and Partnerships.

The Hadley series is named for an alumnus and past Purdue employee who was a founding member of APSAC. Richard Hadley was a senior mechanical engineer at Purdue for almost 25 years before his death in 1993. Hadley presentations are intended to provide career enrichment for staff members. One is arranged for each spring by the Professional Development subcommittee of APSAC. The series is supported by the Richard Hadley Memorial APSAC Fund for Staff Development. Gifts to that fund can be made through the University Development Office with a notation of "Richard Hadley Memorial APSAC Fund for Staff."