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Melvin Goldman

Melvin Goldman (z”l) seemed to be a typical successful American, living with his family in Squirrel Hill, a multicultural Pittsburgh neighborhood with a large Jewish population. There, he turned his craftsmanship as a jewelry designer into a profitable business, and maintained a rosy outlook on life and a generous view of his fellow man. It may seem like a common story, but it is far from it. In the decade before his arrival in the United States in 1950, Mieczyslaw Goldman saw his home destroyed, his family torn apart, his health ruined, and nearly everyone he had ever known murdered in the death camps of the Third Reich. His survival of the years in the ghetto and Auschwitz, his long and slow recovery, and his attainment of a somewhat normal life are miraculous. Perhaps even more miraculous is his refusal to let his experience destroy his faith in God or his love for humanity. Told in his own words from audio recording he made decades later, and supplemented with his daughter’s memories of their happy life in Pittsburgh, this is a story which no reader will ever forget.

Available at Pittsburgh Area Retailers:

Pinskers Books & Judaica (Squirrel Hill)

Riverstone Books (McCandless)

The Chocolate Moose (Squirrel Hill)

Mystery Lovers Bookshop (Oakmont)

Rodef Shalom Gift Corner (Shadyside)

Senator John Heinz History Center Museum Shop (Strip District)

Appalachian Gallery (Morgantown, WV)

Melvin (then Mieczyslaw) and his siblings photographed in Poland (1930s). Only Melvin (on the far right) and his brother Aron (second from left) survived the Holocaust.

More about Melvin

About the Book | Lee Goldman Kikel

A Holocaust Survivor’s Gratitude to the 82nd Airborne Division | Veterans Breakfast Club

Q&A: Lee Kikel | Littsburgh

Perseverance’ tells story of Squirrel Hill jeweler’s journey from Holocaust camps to U.S. | TribLive

Start Reading Perseverance: One Holocaust Survivor’s Journey from Poland to America… | Littsburgh

Local Holocaust survivor’s story retold by Holocaust Center/Prime Stage Theatre | Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

Cache of audiotapes inspires new play about a Holocaust survivor in Pittsburgh | WESA

New Play Tells Story of Pittsburgh Jeweler Who Survived the Holocaust | National Jeweler

How This Secret History of a Holocaust Survivor Made Its Way from Audio Tapes to a Pittsburgh Stage | Pittsburgh Magazine

Genealogy research leads to amazing discoveries | Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

A memoir relating to experiences in Łódź, Auschwitz, Braunschweig, and Woebbelin (not digitized) | USHMM