Łódź to Pittsburgh: A Holocaust Survival Story

In middle age, Melvin Goldman recorded a series of cassette tapes telling his life story, leaving them to be found decades later after his passing. His daughter, Lee Goldman Kikel, discovered the recordings—a priceless family heirloom conveying memory and the history of a Polish Jewish family which became the basis of a 2019 Holocaust memoir. Lee’s presentation focuses on her father’s recounting: his pre-war childhood, ability to survive the Łódź ghetto, Auschwitz and other concentration camps, and a miraculous recovery while knowing most of his family perished. Lee tells how hope, tenacity, and perseverance amid major losses guided her father to become a United States citizen and start a new life in Pittsburgh.

This is the second of a three-program series highlighting stories of Jewish people in Butler County and Western Pennsylvania.

Presenter: Lee Goldman Kikel

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Host or Publisher Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh