Blue glow sticks lit the Tilson Auditorium at Indiana State University. They represented the remarkable life of Eva Kor at a public memorial.
“People from so many locations and so many places met her through a variety of different ways, and I think that it would have shown her the impact that’s she did make,” said Candles Museum Executive Director Leah Simpson.
Several close friends and colleagues of Eva shared special memories they had with her, including Senator Todd Young and Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett.
At many times, the room was full of laughter at stories of Eva’s humor and other times the room was filled with silence as the details of Eva’s painful past as a holocaust survivor were recounted.
She and her twin sister Miriam were used for experiments in Auschwitz.
The Nazis wanted to repopulate that Aryan race and so they wanted multiple births. Three days were the observation labs. Eva says they were humiliating because you sat naked but they were not hurtful,” Simpson said.
Most importantly, the memorial service reminded everyone of how Eva’s legacy will live on.
“Those she left behind have been left with an obligation. An obligation to carry on the work she has started,” said her son, Alex Kor.
A second public memorial service will take place on Saturday August 18 on Butler University’s campus in Indianapolis.
