A Holocaust survivor’s forgiveness is inspiring people in the Kansas City area, including a teacher who just finished writing a play about the survivor.
University of Central Missouri instructor Jill Szoo Wilson recently held a staged reading of her play on Eva Mozes Kor, who survived the Auschwitz death camp.
“This is the most important thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Wilson said about writing the play.
She hopes her play finds a permanent home at a theater somewhere in the Kansas City area.
Changed Her Life
As 41 Action News first told you in 2015, Wilson actually quit her teaching job for two years to write the play after she met Eva Kor and traveled with her on a tour of Auschwitz.
“(Meeting Eva) was powerful in my life and so I knew I wanted to show that,” Wilson said.
Auschwitz Death Camp
Seven decades ago, the Nazis killed Kor’s parents and older sisters. Kor and her twin became guinea pigs in torturous medical experiments.
Her twin died from complications years later and then Eva did something no Auschwitz survivor had ever done.
Finding Forgiveness
“I have forgiven the Nazis. I have forgiven everybody,” Kor said during a lecture at the University of Central Missouri last month. She also spoke at Rockhurst University the night before.
Kor also told the crowd she’s learned that forgiveness frees her from all her pain and anger.
“It changes something within you,” Kor said to encourage others to also forgive. “You take control over your own life regardless of what people did to you and everybody has that power.”
Inspiring Others
Kor’s message inspired Wilson to not only write a play but to also forgive people who abused her as a child.
“Prior to forgiving some of my own perpetrators from early on in my life, I had sort of an underlying anxiety,” Wilson said.
Since forgiveness made her stronger, Wilson says she’s trying to pay it forward through her play about Eva.
Changing Lives
“People come up to me afterwards and are changed,” Wilson said about her play.
After speaking to Wilson’s students and others during her lecture at the University of Central Missouri, Kor stayed to sign books and shake hands for nearly two more hours.
“You can forgive and go on with your life, you deserve to be free,” Kor told one student who asked about forgiving people in his life.
Whether through her books, her CANDLES Holocaust Museum in Indiana and Wilson’s play, Kor hopes her message lives on.
“We can teach the world to heal,” Kor said.
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