Holocaust survivor Eva Mozes Kor (L) signs copies of her book, “Surviving the Angel of Death: The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz,” while Warsaw Community Schools Chief Academic Officer and Assistant Superintendent David Hoffert (R) looks on March 25, 2014. Kor died Thursday at the age of 85. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.
Holocaust survivor Eva Mozes Kor (L) signs copies of her book, “Surviving the Angel of Death: The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz,” while Warsaw Community Schools Chief Academic Officer and Assistant Superintendent David Hoffert (R) looks on March 25, 2014. Kor died Thursday at the age of 85. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.
Eva Mozes Kor, a Holocaust survivor and advocate for forgiveness who visited Warsaw and Winona Lake in 2014, has died.

She was 85.

Governor Eric J. Holcomb offered the following statement regarding the passing of Eva Kor:

“The world just lost a giant with Eva Kor’s passing. Janet and I loved and adored her. Everywhere she went, Eva brought light into darkness and provided comfort to those in pain unlike anyone we’ve ever met. From her against-all-odds survival as a young girl in Auschwitz to her peace-spreading message based from home in Terre Haute, her relentless and optimistic example inspired the world. Her angelic spirit will live on in the countless souls she saved from ongoing confusion and torment. Janet and I are reminded just how blessed we are to have her as a friend. We will miss her laughter, her wisdom and her passion. We call on every Hoosier to look above on this Independence Day and say a prayer for Eva and the family and nation she leaves behind.”

Holcomb named Kor the recipient of the 2017 Sachem, the state’s highest honor.

The Auschwitz Memorial tweeted Thursday, “Only five days ago we recorded a testimony of Eva Kor, an Auschwitz survivor, for (the museum’s) archive. Today came news about her passing away. It’s more than just ‘a breaking news.’ It is a devastating one as one more survivor stopped sharing the story.”

The Indianapolis Star reported Kor died Thursday morning just miles from the Auschwitz concentration camp, 75 years after first arriving there as a victim of torture under the Nazi regime. The newspaper listed her time of death as 7:10 a.m., local time, in Krakow, Poland.

Indiana Sen. Todd Young tweeted, “Eva Kor taught so many about the horrors of the Holocaust and, just as importantly, the power of love and forgiveness. Indiana and the world will miss this great American.”

In 2014, Kor spoke to sixth- through eighth-graders from Warsaw, Tippecanoe Valley and Wawasee schools during the day, and then gave a public presentation that evening at the Manahan Orthopedic Capital Center on the campus of Grace College in Winona Lake. Over 6,000 people attended the two sessions.

She also signed some copies of her book, “Surviving the Angel of Death: The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz.”

A big part of her story, her lectures and book was discovering that forgiveness is healing and “the seed for peace,” despite she and her twin sister, Miriam, being experimented on at 10 years old by Nazi doctors. The twin had a daily inspection with Dr. Josef Mengele, later known as the “Angel of Death.”

They were liberated from Auschwitz in 1945. Miriam died in 1993.

According to a March 26, 2014, Times-Union article, at the lecture in Winona Lake, Kor said, “I call forgiveness a seed for peace. Anger is a seed for war. The forgiveness is not for the perpetrator.”