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November 7, 2009

Kor writes book for teens

By Sue Loughlin

TERRE HAUTE — In the prologue to her new book for young teens, Eva Mozes Kor describes her arrival at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944.

She describes the tall, sharp barbed-wire fences; SS patrols in guard towers, aiming their guns at the newly arrived Jewish prisoners; and guard dogs barking and growling, their lips foaming and teeth “flashing white and pointy.”

Kor held on tightly to the trembling hand of her twin sister, Miriam, as the 10-year-olds faced an uncertain, but terrifying future.

A guard tore the twin sisters away from their mother. “We never saw Papa, Mama, [and sisters] Edit, or Aliz again,” Kor says in the last sentence of the prologue.

The newly published 140-page book is titled “Surviving the Angel of Death: The Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz.” Its target audience is young adults ages 12 and above.

The book was published in Terre Haute by Tanglewood Press and it’s being nationally distributed. Publisher and editor Peggy Tierney said it’s being sold at national chains (Barnes and Noble and Borders) as well as independent bookstores and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Tierney hired a professional writer to work with Kor, and the book is written first-person in Kor’s own words. It came out last month, and Tierney says she already has sold 3,000 copies.

There will be a book signing from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Waldenbooks in Honey Creek Mall.

Kor previously has written books about her experiences, but the books were self-published and did not involve a professional writer. “It’s such an amazing and powerful story and it deserved to be told well,” Tierney said.

Kor is pleased with the results, although it’s been a three-year process and gone through three writers. She likes the final product written by children’s author Lisa Rojany Buccieri.

“It brings the story to life,” Kor said. For example, in the prologue, Buccieri vividly captures the twins standing on the selection platform, completely bewildered — their family gone.

Now, when Kor visits Auschwitz, she always goes back to the site where she last saw her family. “When we lose our loved ones, we remember how we saw them the last time,” Kor said in an interview.

Buccieri “describes the thoughts of a young child in a very clear form, where young readers could relate to it in a way that I feel it’s important for a child to understand what happened,” Kor said.

She describes the book as vivid, but not scary. She and Buccieri are the book’s co-authors; Kor told the story, and Buccieri put it in writing.

Kor edited the book and made sure the story was told accurately and captured the true spirit of a survivor. “The way anybody survived Auschwitz was by having an unbelievable will to live,” Kor said. In her mind, the book had to reflect that.

As she would edit “Surviving the Angel of Death,” sometimes she would get tears in her eyes, she said, but she didn’t want to get too emotional. She wanted to finish the book.

“I think it’s easier to give birth to a child than to give birth to a book,” Kor said.

She believes the book will be “very, very successful … I hope in the next year or two it will be in every school in the United States.” She also hopes it sells internationally, including in Germany and Israel.

The book relates her experiences in Auschwitz — losing her parents and older sisters to the gas chambers, while she and twin sister Miriam were subjected to sadistic experiments at the hands of the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele.

But the book also gives context and describes her life before and after the Holocaust. Kor’s epilogue tells of her recovery from this experience and “her remarkable decision to publicly forgive the Nazis,” according to a Tanglewood press release. The book contains pictures of Kor’s childhood and family; the concentration camp; as well as her life after the Holocaust.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who met Kor at a conference on forgiveness, read the book and wrote the following endorsement: “Eva Mozes Kor has written a very moving and vivid account of an extraordinary and horrific experience. It is an important document showing the strength of the human spirit and the capacity to forgive.”

The book can be purchased at the Candles Holocaust Museum for $15 or through its Web site — www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org. — and part of the proceeds will go to the museum, Kor said.

If purchased there, the buyer can actually meet the survivor and get her autograph, Kor said. For young readers, she believes it’s important for them to know “I am real.”

The book also can be purchased at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.



Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.

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