Along with her twin sister Miriam, Kor was subjected to human experimentation under the direction of SS Doctor Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland during World War II.

Kor founded the organization CANDLES (an acronym for "Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors") in 1984 with an aim to educate the public about eugenics, the Holocaust, and the power of forgiveness.

[1] After meeting Hans Münch, Kor received international attention when she made the controversial decision to publicly forgive the Nazis for what they had done to her.

[5] The twins spent the next nine months in this camp until their liberation being subject to experimentation led by SS Doctor Josef Mengele.

After some injections, she became very ill with a very high fever while her legs and arms became swollen and painful; she was trembling as the sun burned her skin and she had huge red spots covering her body.

During that time, she only has one clear memory of the two weeks she spent there: crawling across the floor (because she was no longer able to walk) to reach a faucet with water.

By searching a nearby displaced person's camp, Eva and Miriam located Rosalita Csengeri, a friend of their mother who also had twin daughters used by Mengele.

[9] After the war, Eva and Miriam lived in Cluj,[3] Romania, with their Aunt Irena (also a survivor) where they went to school and attempted to recover from their experiences at Auschwitz and adjust to life under Communist rule.

In 1960, Eva married Michael Kor, an American citizen and a fellow Holocaust survivor,[3] and she joined him in the United States.

With no outlet for her anger, she once berated an elementary teacher for wasting food by coloring Easter eggs and became a target for pranks by neighborhood kids due to her "unlikable" demeanor.

[12] Into adulthood, Eva suffered numerous health problems that she believed were a result of her treatment and experiments at Auschwitz.

[13][14] In April 1978, Kor began earning respect in her community and around the world after being interviewed on a local affiliate twice while the NBC miniseries Holocaust starring Meryl Streep and James Woods was broadcast.

In 1984, Eva founded CANDLES ("Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors"), an organization which she was president of and remained active in until her death.

[12] Eva was highly active through the time of her death, traveling around the world lecturing and presenting, and also gave guided tours of Auschwitz.

[17] In 1999, Kor filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical company Bayer for its part in the human experiments perpetrated at the camps.

[23][24] In 2007, Kor worked with Indiana state legislators Clyde Kersey and Tim Skinner to gain passage of a law requiring Holocaust education in secondary schools.

[29] In 2016, Kor was one of 13 Holocaust survivors as part of a USC Shoah Foundation's New Dimension in Testimony technology project that makes it appear as if her virtual avatar is able to answer questions as if he or she were in the room.

It is narrated by Ed Asner and features interviews with Elliott Gould, several Holocaust historians, and people from Kor's life.

[34] On July 4, 2019, Kor died while in Kraków, Poland,[3] accompanying a CANDLES group on an educational trip to Auschwitz.

Kor was honored at the 24th Annual ADL in Concert Against Hate on November 8, 2018 for "resilience, compassion, and love in the face of hatred and violence.