Mel Mermelstein
Mel Mermelstein | |
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Born | Moric Mermelstein September 22, 1926 Örösveg, Munkacs) |
Died | January 28, 2022 , United States | (aged 95)
Melvin Mermelstein (born Moric Mermelstein; September 25, 1926 – January 28, 2022) was a Czechoslovak-born American Holocaust survivor and autobiographer. A Jew, he was the sole survivor of his family's extermination at Auschwitz concentration camp.
He is best known for his litigation with the
Life and career
Mermelstein was born in Örösveg, the son of Fani, a homemaker, and Herman-Bernad Mermelstein, a winemaker.
The Institute for Historical Review
In 1980, the Institute for Historical Review (IHR) promised a $50,000 reward to anyone who could prove that Jews were gassed at Auschwitz.[4]
Mermelstein wrote a letter to the editors of the Los Angeles Times and others, including The Jerusalem Post. The Institute for Historical Review wrote back, offering him $50,000 for proof that Jews were, in fact, gassed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Mermelstein, in turn, submitted a notarized account of his internment at Auschwitz and how in 1944 he witnessed Nazi guards ushering his mother and two sisters and others towards (as he learned later) gas chamber number five.[4]
The IHR refused to pay the reward, stating that Mermelstein's notarized account was "not sufficient proof". Represented by public interest attorney
In a pre-trial determination, Judge Thomas T. Johnson declared:
This court does take judicial notice of the fact that Jews were gassed to death at Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland during the summer of 1944. It is not reasonably subject to dispute. And it is capable of immediate and accurate determination by resort to sources of reasonably indisputable accuracy. It is simply a fact.[5]
In California, the Evidence Code permits the Court to take judicial notice of "facts and propositions of generalized knowledge that are so universally known that they cannot reasonably be the subject of dispute".[6]
In 1986, the IHR, along with its founder Willis Carto, sued Mermelstein for allegedly libeling them during an interview with a New York City radio station, but dropped the lawsuit in 1988. Mermelstein also sued the IHR in 1988 for an article in the IHR Newsletter that examined what it considered to be flaws and inconsistencies in his 1981 lawsuit testimony.
In 1988, Mermelstein (who was a member of the International Auschwitz Committee) included photo-enlarged copies of IHR's checks to him totaling $90,000 along with their apology letter in the exhibit "From Ashes to Life" at the Mills House Art Gallery in Garden Grove, California. The exhibit also included other Holocaust documentation from Mermelstein's collection, including photos of his family and of other emaciated camp victims and survivors.[4]
Mermelstein was portrayed by Leonard Nimoy and Cox was played by Dabney Coleman in a 1991 TV film, Never Forget, about the 1981 lawsuit. He wrote of the court battle in his autobiography, titled By Bread Alone.
About these so-called deniers of The Holocaust, and who they really are, see my letter to the editors dated August 1980 in my book By Bread Alone, The Story of A-4685.
— Mel Mermelstein
Death
Mermelstein died from complications of COVID-19 at home in Long Beach, California, on January 28, 2022. He was 95.[2][7]
Works
- By bread alone (1981) Auschwitz Study Foundation.ISBN 0-9606534-0-6.
References
- ^ a b "California Judge Rules Holocaust Did Happen". The New York Times. Associated Press. October 10, 1981. p. A26. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
- ^ a b Roberts, Sam (February 1, 2022). "Mel Mermelstein, Holocaust Survivor Who Sued Deniers, Dies at 95". The New York Times. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Sauer, Patrick (August 27, 2018). "Mel Mermelstein Survived Auschwitz, Then Sued Holocaust Deniers in Court". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f "Holocaust's Horrors: Survivor's Exhibit of Death Camp Artifacts Recalls Nazi Atrocities". Los Angeles Times. April 15, 1988. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
- ^ a b c "Mel Mermelstein v. Institute for Historical Review Judgment and Statement of Record". Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
- ^ "California evidence code". Sections 451(f) and 452(h). Archived from the original on July 27, 2010.
- ^ "Mel Mermelstein, Auschwitz survivor who challenged Holocaust deniers, dies at 95". The Washington Post. February 1, 2022. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
- ^ "9780960653409: By Bread Alone: The Story of A-4685 - AbeBooks - Mel Mermelstein: 0960653406". www.abebooks.com. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
External links
- Deniers in Revisionists Clothing - Information about the Institute for Historical Review and Mermelstein settlement.
- Mel Mermelstein files Archived September 8, 2005, at the Wayback Machine (Nizkor Archive Directory, Shofar FTP)
- Mel Mermelsteins non-profit organization