Museum founded by Holocaust survivor reopens in Indiana

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — A western Indiana museum founded by a Holocaust survivor who championed forgiveness has reopened following a six-month-long closure prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center reopened in Terre Haute on Friday, when 26 visitors showed up to see a new exhibit and hear the stories of Holocaust survivors.

“We are excited to have people back, and we are trying to be very cautionary with our cleaning routines and safety,” museum director Leah Simpson told the Tribune-Star.

She said public interest in the museum and education center has remained strong during the months-long closure amid the pandemic.

The CANDLES museum, or Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors, was founded by Eva Kor, who died in July 2019 at age 85 during an overseas trip to Poland for the museum.

She and her twin sister, Miriam Zeiger, who died of cancer in 1993, endured medical experiments at the Auschwitz concentration camp, where their parents and older sister — members of a Jewish family from Romania — died. Despite that tragedy, Kor later championed forgiveness for those who carried out the Holocaust atrocities.

A new digital exhibit at the museum, called “In Their Own Words: The Mengele Twins Tell Their Stories,” is interactive and includes videos of survivors of experiments conducted by Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi doctor who conducted cruel experiments at concentration camps.