Authors Dr. Alex Kor and Graham Honaker will appear on the HHREC Memory Keepers Story Hour to talk about their recently published book A Blessing, Not a Burden. The book chronicles the lives of Dr. Kor’s parents Eva and Mickey Kor as they managed to survive the unimaginable horrors of life in a concentration camp during the Holocaust and how they positively impacted Dr. Kor. He is a member of the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center Board of Directors, and assisted in establishing an exhibit (Eva Kor from Auschwitz to Indiana) to honor his mother in downtown Indianapolis. Graham Honaker serves as Executive Director of Principal Gifts at Butler University. The book has earned widespread acclaim from major universities, media correspondents, governors, actor Elliott Gould and many others.
A Blessing, Not a Burden is the story of so much suffering yet at the same time, so much spirit. It is a spirit I got to see firsthand when I interviewed Eva Kor at Auschwitz in 1985, on the 40th anniversary of its liberation. She spoke of her horrors but also of her forgiveness. As if it’s not enough that against all odds, she survived the Nazi death camp, she also survived something even worse: Dr. Josef Mengele, the so-called “Angel of Death.” As one of the hundreds of sets of identical twins who became experimental fodder in Mengele’s degenerate lab at Auschwitz, she survived his persistent and perverted procedures while he murdered other twins just to have corpses for his experiments. Her spirit is something to emulate. Her life is something to honor. This book does just that.
Greg Dobbs, Emmy Award winning former ABC News correspondent
These stories offer a unique opportunity to hear from a very special group of Survivors and next generation family members about the consequences of hate, and the power of hope, as they help people reflect and realize that their choices matter, and that one person can make a difference.
