Eva Mozes remembers waking up in Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945. "It was quiet," Eva recalls. "It was very eerie to have such a quiet morning. We thought maybe this would be the day that we would be free."
Eva Mozes remembers waking up in Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945. "It was quiet," Eva recalls. "It was very eerie to have such a quiet morning. We thought maybe this would be the day that we would be free."
That afternoon, Soviet troops arrived, liberating the remaining prisoners. In footage taken after the camp's liberation, Eva and her twin sister, Miriam, can be seen walking hand in hand out of Auschwitz.
Eva and Miriam were born in a small village in Romania in 1934. When the twins were just six years old, their town was annexed by Hungary, and when they were 10, it was occupied by Nazi Germany. Hungarian and German authorities sent Eva, Miriam, their parents, and their two older sisters to a ghetto in the nearby town of Szilágysomlyó (Simleu Silvaniei) in 1944. From there, they were then deported to Auschwitz.
Upon their arrival, Eva and Miriam were separated from their family and selected by SS doctor Josef Mengele for his notorious experimentation on twins. For months, they were subjected to various procedures. Despite becoming severely ill, both twins survived to witness the camp's liberation.
Eva and Miriam were the only members of their immediate family to survive the Holocaust. After the war, both became active in the remembrance movement for Mengele's victims.
Photo 1: Child survivors of Auschwitz. Standing next to the nurse are Miriam and Eva Mozes; USHMM, courtesy of Wytwornia Filmow Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych
Photo 2: Prewar photograph of the Mozes twins; USHMM, courtesy of Yad Vashem
#Holocaust #History #Auschwitz #HolocaustSurvivor


Comments
Post a Comment