CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center Honors Survivors’ Stories in Indiana

CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute believes that shining a light on the stories of Holocaust survivors is a critical step in healing the past and addressing the antisemitism that still exists worldwide. While the museum understands confronting such a heart-wrenching historic event can be difficult, its mission is to encourage people to come learn in a safe space in the hopes it will never happen again.

“We are Indiana’s only Holocaust museum, and to have it in Terre Haute is unique,” says Troy Fears, executive director.

CANDLES founder and Romanian native Eva Mozes Kor moved to Indiana in 1960, shortly after meeting fellow Holocaust survivor Michael “Mickey” Kor on a blind date in Israel. The couple married, and she joined him in Terre Haute, where Mickey worked as a pharmacist and Eva as a real estate agent.

“She did not speak English,” Fears says. “She learned by watching soap operas.”

They adapted to their new life; however, Eva eventually wanted to honor her past and other survivors.

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A Sister’s Love

Taken to Auschwitz in the summer of 1944, Eva and her twin sister, Miriam, were subjected to medical experiments by Dr. Josef Mengele for most of their time in the camp and were believed to be among approximately 200 surviving twins of the original 3,000.

In the 1980s, Eva embarked on a mission to find other Mengele twins willing to share their memories publicly.

“We have a unique niche where we talk about the Mengele twins,” says Trent Andrews, CANDLES operations director. “We are really the only Holocaust museum in the world that’s dedicated to preserving the story of the Mengele twins and teaching people about that chapter of history.”

Miriam passed away in the early 1990s, and in 1995, Eva opened the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in memory of her sister.

“At that point, it was a small space,” Fears says. “They did not have many artifacts. It was mainly just informational posters. Eva was the main attraction, so to speak, in that school groups would come, and she would speak to them.”

In 2003, the original museum was destroyed by a fire bomber who spray-painted antisemitic graffiti on the brick-walled exterior. Donations made it possible to build back in the same spot, and it reopened in 2005.

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Sharing the Stories

One CANDLES exhibit depicts the firebombing, with mementos damaged by the arsonist and a message about the impact of anti-Semitism in the U.S. and Terre Haute.

Another, called Dimensions in Testimony, allows visitors to interact with 12 Holocaust survivors, including Eva, through digital biographies programmed to answer more than 1,000 questions. The main exhibit, Choices, explores the decisions those in captivity were forced to make from the perspective of three local survivors, Michael, Eva and Walter Sommers. The display also features the artwork of Frank Grunwald, a survivor from Indianapolis.

“Through its guided school tours, CANDLES also provides a way to come and learn about the Holocaust in a safe space,” Andrews says. “It takes a lot of pressure off the teachers, or maybe even the parents, who don’t want to approach this topic with their students or their children.”

Because Eva was 10 years old when she, her parents and her sisters were sent to the Polish concentration camp, kids connect with her story.

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Bearing Witness

The museum hosts an annual trip to Auschwitz. About 1,200 people have participated so far with 30 to 50, mostly students and educators, going annually.

For years, Eva led the museum’s annual Auschwitz trips until she passed away during one of the trips in 2019. However, the museum maintains the annual trip with the next visit scheduled for the summer.

“We believe we do it well and can provide a great experience, one that is moving and educational,” says Fears, who, along with Andrews, has gone several times. “There were about 1.2 million people murdered in Auschwitz. And if we can personalize it, tell a story or a few stories, that really helps the students understand that, yes, it was 80 years ago, but they can relate to it.”

Eva’s story is, ultimately, one of hope, peace, healing and forgiveness.

“Eva was a proponent of forgiveness,” Fears says. “She forgave the Nazis. She forgave Dr. Mengele. And that changed her life. To her, it was a way to move past the trauma that she had been through. And that’s a big part of what we teach and what we talk about here at the museum.”

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