Pittsburgh native reflects on father’s story of survival, family history through Holocaust
SAXONBURG — A black and white picture of 12-year-old Mieczylow Goldman, which was hidden in a chimney and discovered after World War II in the walls of what remained of his family home in Łódź, Poland, is one of the only pictures that remains of the Holocaust survivor’s childhood.
As a child, Lee Goldman Kikel’s father didn’t speak much about being ghettoed in the bustling town where he once went to synagogue, played soccer and went to school. He did not speak about being transported by cattle-car to Auschwitz, where he was known by Nazi guards as Prisoner KZ6427, how he was separated from his family, narrowly escaped death in a crematorium, and was imprisoned in three different concentration camps.
Decades later after his liberation in 1945, Goldman — who later went by Melvin, immigrated to the United States in 1950, settled in Squirrel Hill, opened a jewelry business on the second floor of the Pittsburgh neighborhood’s Manor Theater — recorded his life story on audiotapes. Only in the years that followed did Kikel learn of her father’s ordeals and the glimmers of humanity that shone through the horror.
In the span of four years, Kikel told guests at the South Butler Community Library Wednesday, she compiled her father’s story into a book: “Perseverance: One Holocaust Survivor’s Journey from Poland to America.” It details her own memories of her father and includes a treasure trove of family history and research.
Her father’s story prompted Kikel to begin piecing together her family history and travel to Europe and led her to connect with two cousins she never knew existed. Kikel’s search for answers also revealed she had lost over 100 relatives to the Holocaust.
“’All of a sudden, I am a Jew — 16 years old, and I am a political prisoner,’” Kikel read from her father’s recollections.
“My father went through unimaginable horrors and was not bitter — he was still a human being,” she said. “ … If he could live life like that, after all he experienced, others can too. His life reminds us that besides being commanded to remember, we are forbidden to despair.”
Kikel said that her father kept a framed letter from a lieutenant in the 82nd Airborne Division that liberated him. Thirty-seven years after his liberation, Goldman wrote to that man, James Gavin, by then a lieutenant general.
“This is a letter of appreciation written 37 years too late, and I hope not late enough,” Goldman’s letter began. “I am one of the survivors of the concentration camps. I was in a ghetto and then in three camps, and the last camp was Ludwigslust … I was one of those incarcerated, the third one from the door that they shipped out with the American Red Cross Ambulance … I saw you through the window and waved. I know it’s a long time to remember.”
One chapter remained of Kikel’s book as she completed her writing process. That same day, she said, the Tree of Life shooter entered the synagogue during Shabbat morning services, killing 11 worshippers.
The intersection between the hate crime and Kikel’s account of her father’s survival story shows that antisemitism is still alive, she said.
“We must continue to tell these stories like my father’s so we never forget,” Kikel said. “My biggest take-away is that there is always hope. I stay involved, and I look to the future.”
