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http://www.tribstar.com/news/local_story_166002317.html?keyword=topstory

Holocaust survivor gets ‘extraordinary’ look at experimental vials
By Dave Taylor
Special to the Tribune-Star

EDITOR’S NOTE: ISU’s Dave Taylor is traveling with Terre Haute resident Eva Kor, a Holocaust survivor, as she leads a group of people touring the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp complex in Poland. Lorna Reeley, a nurse from Danville., Ill., is part of the group and took the photos that accompany this story.

In a surreal moment, Holocaust survivor Eva Kor on Thursday held in her hand a vial of liquid used in human experiments at Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

Kor’s twin sister, Miriam Zeiger, died from bladder cancer in 1993, and Kor believes experiments performed by Dr. Josef Mengele contributed to her death. For decades, she has sought additional information about the experiments.

She had become aware of the existence of at least one such vial in recent years.

However, Kor was surprised to learn during a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum that there are seven vials in the museum’s collection and all appear to be full.

“We know that this preparation was used for tests on prisoners,” said Igor Bartosik, a researcher in the museum archives at Auschwitz.

However, Bartosik does not know whether Mengele himself used the substance, or whether it was used only on twins. The vials are labeled “BE 1034” and bear the name “Bayer/IG Farber Industries.”

There have been reports BE 1034 was used to treat twins who had been intentionally injected with a contagious virus. However, Bartosik said the liquid has never been tested to determine its contents. He also said he could not confirm whether Mengele himself used the preparation.

He noted the seven vials, kept in a small cardboard box, are among approximately 100,000 items housed in the archives’ collection.

“The whole idea that I am sitting here and looking at the original vials that might have been used is unbelievable. It’s extraordinary that you permitted me the privilege of seeing these vials and even picking them up and looking at them. I am very grateful and I think you have done a tremendous deed for me,” Kor said to Bartosik.

She said she will make a formal request for the museum to have the contents of the vials analyzed at Jagiellonian University in nearby Krakow.

At age 10, Kor and Zeiger (the Mozes twins) were among those who underwent experiments performed by Mengele at Auschwitz during their nine-month stay at nearby Birkenau prior to the camp’s liberation. Fewer than 200 twins survived at Birkenau before liberation of the camp by the Soviet Army in 1945.

The vials housed at Auschwitz were taken into Soviet custody. It is unclear when they were returned to Auschwitz.

The visit to the archives at Auschwitz was part of a weeklong journey in which Kor was accompanied by 15 K-12 teachers from Indiana and Illinois who are seeking a better understanding of the Holocaust. Two Indiana State University professors who will help develop Holocaust curriculum are also on the trip.

While additional information about the experiments at Auschwitz will come too late to help Zeiger, children of the so-called Mengele twins are concerned about the potential impact of the experiments on their own lives.

“My aunt died of cancer and 20 years ago I had cancer. Is there a connection?” asked Alex Kor, 46.

Educators accompanying the Kors say they share their hope the discovery of full vials of liquid used in the testing will lead to answers.

“This could be a gold mine of information perhaps,” said Jim Kendall, a history teacher at Booker T. Washington High School in Terre Haute.

Also on Thursday, Piotr Setkiewicz, head of the Auschwitz-Birkenau archives, supplied copies of hundreds of pages of documents related to the Mozes twins’ stay at Birkenau. Family members say those documents need to be translated before their value can be determined.