Generations Speaker Series: Lee Goldman Kikel

Recorded at Chatham University on September 28, 2022.
In the decade before his arrival in the United States in 1950, Mieczyslaw (Melvin) 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 were miraculous. Perhaps even more miraculous was his refusal to let his experience destroy his faith in God or his love for humanity.
Over five years, his daughter, Lee Goldman Kikel, worked to turn her father’s story--a telling of his life through a series of recorded audio tapes--into a book recounting the tragedy and hope of one survivor’s experience. The book, Perseverance, was published in 2019. Lee will share her father’s story during this new installment in our Generations Speaker Series.
Lee grew up in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, where she spent her early years at Wightman School, Taylor Allderdice High School, and her parents’ jewelry business. She later earned her BS in Psychology and master’s in Education from the University of Pittsburgh and worked in the mental health field as a rehabilitation counselor. A lifelong Pittsburgher, she resides in Hampton Township with her family.
This event is part of the 2022 RADical Days, an annual program of the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD). The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh is proud to receive RAD funding. Funding for the Generations Program is generously provided by the Sylvia & Martin Snow Family Fund