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 he and his brother, Aaron Goldman, into a separate line from his parents and five other siblings. Only he and his brother, 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, Jan. 24, at the Cranberry Public Library.
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.
