Survivor of Holocaust and Mengele Experiments to Address Ethics in Human Research

Cincinnati - Eva Mozes Kor, a twin who survived not only the Holocaust but also the brutal experiments of Dr. Josef Mengele, will present the lecture, "Ethics in Human Research,” at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 3, on the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center Campus. The lecture will be held in the Kresge Auditorium (E701), which is located in the front lobby of the Medical Sciences Building, 231 Albert Sabin Way.

Mozes Kor will appear as a guest of the Department of Neurosurgery and the Mayfield Clinic. Her appearance is supported by a grant from the Mayfield Neurosciences Foundation. The one-hour lecture is free and open to the public. Because seating is limited, those interested in attending are asked to RSVP to Jillian Bollinger at (513) 558-6031 or Jillian.Bollinger@uc.edu. Directions to the lecture room will be provided at that time.

Ms. Mozes Kor travels the country speaking about her Holocaust experience, her ability to forgive, and the need for today’s medical researchers to maintain scrupulous ethical standards and accountability to the public.

"We are honored to host Eva Mozes Kor as a guest lecturer,” said Mario Zuccarello, MD, chair of the department of neurosurgery. "Her memories cast a spotlight on one of the darkest corners of medicine’s history, while her messages of forgiveness and our duty to remain vigilant against prejudice are timeless and universal. We can all learn from her.”

Ms. Mozes Kor and her identical twin, Miriam Mozes, were among 200 twins who survived Mengele, known as the Angel of Death, who conducted his human experiments at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Ms. Mozes Kor’s parents, grandparents, two older sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins did not survive the Holocaust. Miriam Mozes died of a rare form of cancer in 1993.

Mengele, who was well trained in medicine, was driven by an obsession with heredity and the Nazi ideal of a blue-eyed, blond-haired Aryan race. He found his subjects in 1,500 pairs of twins at Auschwitz. According to historical accounts, Mengele used chemical drops to try to change the color of children’s eyes, injected tuberculosis into healthy bodies, drew blood incessantly, and removed organs. One experiment involved an attempt to create Siamese twins out of two healthy twins. When a twin died following an experiment, the other was killed with an injection to the heart, and autopsies were performed.

Both Ms. Mozes Kor and her sister were subjected to surgeries and experiments. In 1995 Ms. Mozes Kor founded a museum named CANDLES, an acronym for the words "Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors.”

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The Mayfield Clinic is recognized as one of the nation's leading physician organizations for clinical care, education, and research of the spine and brain. Supported by 20 neurosurgeons, five neurointensivists, an interventional radiologist, and a pain specialist, the Clinic treats 25,000 patients from 35 states and 13 countries in a typical year. Mayfield's physicians have pioneered surgical procedures and instrumentation that have revolutionized the medical art of neurosurgery for brain tumors and neurovascular diseases and disorders.

Eva Mozes Kor survived not only the Holocaust but also the brutal experiments of Dr. Josef Mengele