Message From Our Chaplain

Solon American Legion Stinocher Post 460

Veteran-Owned and Serving You Since 1902

At Solon American Legion Stinocher Post 460, we know how much it means to serve. As a veteran-owned organization, we are committed to meeting the needs of those in our community. We’ve been open since 1902, and that means we’ve spent over 120 years helping people right here in Solon, IA.

As part of our mission, we are open to the public for meals, special events, and more. To learn more about Solon American Legion Stinocher Post 460 and what we’re all about, read this recent letter from our chaplain from December 2024.

A Message From Chaplain Doug Thompson

Imagine, if you will, if you came home only to find words of hate spray-painted on the front window of your home. How would you explain such acts of disdain and outright hate to your children or grandchildren?

In 1972, Dr. Alex Kor (then twelve years old) and his parents returned to their Terre Haute, Indiana home from a PTA meeting to find the words “Dirty Jews” and a Nazi swastika painted on their front window. These words and the swastika hit Alex's parents, Eva and Mickey, I am sure, like a punch to their gut and struck fear into their hearts. Mickey, an immigrant from Latvia, and Eva, an immigrant from Romania, were both Holocaust survivors. Nineteen-year-old Mickey escaped his guards as they led him and others on a death march through a bombed-out city. He was later rescued by US Army forces. Because of his language skills in both Russian and German, and as his English improved, he became a translator for the US Army 250th Engineer Combat Battalion. The US commanding officer helped to make arrangements for a host family in Terra Haute, Indiana, to take Mickey in so he could finish high school.

Alex's mother Eva, Eva, and her twin sis, Miriam, were later liberated by Allied forces from the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. Ten-year-old Eva and Miriam spent less than a year at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they became medical test subjects by the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele, known as “The Angel of Death.” Mengele performed many sadistic experiments on twins. Over the course of weeks, Miri, along with other twins, ins underwent blood tests and injections,s which often would make them very sick. After one such injection,ction Eva became very ill. Mengle,l laughing, said: “Too bad because she's so young and she has two weeks to live.” Mengele had her transferred to the Barracks of the Living Dead. Twice a week, the Nazis threw the dying into the back of a truck “like sacks of potatoes.” Eva described this biweekly ritual, “The screaming was horrifying. They couldn't do anything. They had no energy, but they understood that they were being taken to the gas chamber.” Eva said, she “only survived because she couldn't let evil win. My only way to defeat Hitler and the Nazis was to survive.”

The experiments left Eva and her sister Miriam with latent tuberculosis, many allergies, and their kidneys never developed beyond age ten. The underdeveloped kidneys later led to complications that killed Miriam at age 59 in 1993. Then, in 1995, before Eva's death due to complications of underdeveloped kidneys, she did something remarkable: she forgave the Nazis who tortured her. Eva described this act of forgiveness as “it became an act of self-healing, self-liberation, and self-empowerment.” This act of forgiveness propelled Eva into a more loving person. But her forgiveness came with a heavy price; Eva faced resentment and rejection from other Holocaust survivors. This resentment was most pronounced by other twins like Eva and Miriam, who also suffered at the hands of Mengele.

Despite this rejection of her peers, Eva discovered a newfound freedom that had liberated her fully for the first time since 1945. She carried her message of forgiveness until her death, but her message of true forgiveness did not die with her. Her son Alex continues his mother's message of forgiveness that was born out of unimaginable horror. Eva's ability to forgive is something all of us can find if we truly want to free ourselves.