Remember the Past to Protect the Future | Engel Angle

Mac's guest is Dr. Alex Kor, whose parents are Holocaust survivors. The late Mickey and Eva Kor survived separate camps until they were liberated; Eva was one of the "Mengele Twins," patients who were used as human experiments conducted by infamous Nazi Dr. Josef Mengela. Dr. Kor has made it a priority to tell his parent's stories, and to educate people about a topic that some survivors fear is being forgotten.

Some stories aren’t just history — they’re warnings.

In this episode of Engel Angle, Mac Engel sits down with Dr. Alex Kor, the son of two Holocaust survivors, for a powerful and deeply personal conversation about survival, memory, forgiveness, and the responsibility to remember one of history’s darkest chapters.

Dr. Kor shares the extraordinary stories of his parents. His mother, Eva Mozes Kor, survived Auschwitz-Birkenau as a child and was subjected to medical experiments by Josef Mengele. His father endured multiple concentration camps, including Buchenwald. Despite unimaginable suffering, both parents went on to live full lives — and, in Eva’s case, to publicly embrace the controversial idea of forgiveness as a personal path to healing.

Mac and Dr. Kor explore what it means to grow up carrying that legacy, how survivor stories were shared (or withheld) within families, and why younger generations are increasingly disconnected from the reality of the Holocaust. The conversation also confronts the rise of Holocaust denial, the ethical questions surrounding Nazi medical data, and the uncomfortable truth that history fades faster than we expect if it isn’t actively preserved.

At its core, this episode isn’t only about the past. It’s about the present — and the future. Dr. Kor explains why remembrance is not optional, why forgiveness does not mean forgetting, and why being an “upstander” matters in a world where hate and denial still exist.

It’s a heavy listen — and an essential one.

KorFull

Chapters

00:00:00 – Why this conversation matters
00:01:53 – Becoming interested in World War II and the Holocaust
00:04:55 – Growing up as the child of Holocaust survivors
00:06:58 – First exposure to images and film from Auschwitz
00:08:52 – How survivors chose to tell — or not tell — their stories
00:11:23 – Why silence can be more damaging than truth
00:12:26 – Gratitude, guilt, and growing up with perspective
00:13:38 – Eva Mozes Kor and the Mengele experiments
00:15:14 – How anyone survived Auschwitz’s winters
00:16:18 – Visiting Auschwitz for the first time
00:18:36 – Seeing history instead of reading it
00:19:23 – “We didn’t know”: confronting denial and bystanders
00:21:12 – Auschwitz vs. Buchenwald and the reality of all camps
00:24:38 – Are we forgetting the Holocaust?
00:25:22 – Why younger generations know less
00:26:29 – “Remember the past to protect the future”
00:27:35 – Medical ethics and Nazi experimentation data
00:30:30 – Holocaust denial and confronting misinformation
00:33:15 – Forgiveness after unimaginable trauma
00:35:12 – Eva Kor’s controversial decision to forgive
00:37:23 – Forgiveness as a gift to yourself
00:38:01 – Teaching forgiveness without erasing history
00:39:49 – Films and documentaries that help tell the story
00:41:07 – Carrying a legacy without chasing ghosts
00:42:56 – Why Dr. Kor continues his parents’ mission
00:43:08 – Final thoughts and closing

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