Pittsburgh-raised author keeps memory of Holocaust alive, speaks at Cranberry library
CRANBERRY TWP — The last time Melvin Goldman saw most of his family, it was when Schutzstaffel or S.S. soldiers separated him and his brother, Aaron Goldman, into a separate line from his parents and five other siblings. Only he and Aaron would survive.
That was at Auschwitz in the early 1940s.
When Allied Forces liberated the concentration camps in 1945, 21-year-old Melvin Goldman weighed less than 85 pounds. Doctors diagnosed him with tuberculosis and assessed him as more than 70% disabled, predicting he would never walk again.
He proved them wrong, his daughter, Lee Goldman Kikel, said Tuesday at the Cranberry Public Library.
Goldman Kikel, an author, works to keep her father’s story of survival and happiness beyond the Holocaust alive, carrying the fire for new generations.
Before a rapt room of listeners at the library, she told her father’s story, which will be adapted into a play. Visitors can see the play, adapted L.E. McCullough, performed at 8 p.m. April 15 and 2:30 p.m. April 16 at New Hazlett Theater Center for Performing Arts, 5 Allegheny Square East, Pittsburgh.
Her book “Perseverance: One Holocaust Survivor’s Journey from Poland to America,” recounts both the trauma her father experienced and the life he built with his family in Pittsburgh. Melvin Goldman refused to let his experience destroy his belief in God or his faith in humankind, the book’s description reads.
“My dad ... had nightmares that woke everyone up at night, and I’m quite sure he suffered from PTSD,” Goldman Kikel said.
Apart from these nightmares though, “no one really knew about his suffering,” Goldman Kikel said. “He was always upbeat, positive, very encouraging to others.”
Melvin Goldman also suffered from an array of lifelong physical conditions doctors attributed to his five years in concentration camps, his daughter said. But her father’s will was strong, and he had made up his mind that he would either learn to walk again or he would die.
“You either jump off a bridge or you are going to live and think about your parents, what they told you — that somebody in the family has to survive,” Goldman Kikel said.
Melvin Goldman would go on to work his way through school, marry, raise a family and become a United States citizen, Goldman Kikel told the audience.
The work of conveying the lessons of the Holocaust beyond her father’s death presents unique challenges, Goldman Kikel said.
Her father died in 1996.
“I knew I would someday tell my father’s story, but I could not get up the nerve to do that,” Goldman Kikel said.
She wrote some of the story, but couldn’t quite get over the finish line, she said. Then, when she heard her father’s 10 recorded tapes for the first time, Goldman Kikel felt compelled to finish the book, she said.
Listening back to the audio cassette tapes, which her father recorded during the 1970s, marked the first time in almost 20 years Goldman Kikel had heard her father’s voice.
She said there are no Holocaust survivors who still speak before audiences in the Pittsburgh area, which highlights the urgency for younger generations to learn their stories anew.
“At the end of my writing process, the Tree of Life massacre happened,” Goldman Kikel said. The 2018 antisemitic mass shooting saw 11 people murdered at the synagogue.
“This reinforced to me there was still antisemitism in the world. I attended Sunday school at Tree of Life. Our son Jason attended storytime at Tree of Life,” she said. “And Rabbi (Alvin) Berkun officiated my father’s funeral.”
Berkun served as rabbi emeritus when the massacre happened in Pittsburgh and continues to serve as a rabbi emeritus.
“We must continue to tell stories like my father’s, so we ‘never forget,’” she added. “My biggest takeaway is that there is always hope. I stay involved, and I look to the future.”
