Mel Mermelstein: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|Hungarian-born Jewish Holocaust survivor (1926–2022)}}

|birth_place=[[ Örösveg]], [[First Czechoslovak Republic|Czechoslovakia]], (now part of [[Ukraine]], near [[Mukacheve|Munkacs]])

'''MelMelvin Mermelstein''' (born '''Moric Mermelstein'''; September 25, 1926 – January 28, 2022) was a HungarianCzechoslovak-born American [[Holocaust survivors|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 wholitigation defeatedwith the [[Institute for Historical Review]] over evidence of gas chambers in anGerman Americanconcentration courtcamps andduring World War II. The legal dispute was resolved in 1981Mermelstein's hadfavor, without the occurrencecourt giving an opinion on the merits of gassingsthe indispute, [[Auschwitz]]since duringit ruled that [[the Holocaustexistence of gas chambers at [[Auschwitz]] declaredis a legally incontestableindisputable fact. <ref name="NYT">{{cite news | title = California Judge Rules Holocaust Did Happen | date = October 10, 1981 | page = A26 | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | agency = [[Associated Press]] | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/10/us/california-judge-rules-holocaust-did-happen.html | accessdate = November 20, 2010 }}</ref>

Mermelstein was born in Örösveg, the son of Fani, a homemaker, and Herman-Bernad Mermelstein, a winemaker.<ref name=nyt1>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/us/mel-mermelstein-dead.html|title=Mel Mermelstein, Holocaust Survivor Who Sued Deniers, Dies at 95|work=[[The New York Times]]|first=Sam|last=Roberts|date=February 1, 2022|access-date=February 2, 2022}}</ref> Before [[World War II]] broke out, Mermelstein lived in [[Munkacs]], then part of [[Second Czechoslovak Republic|Czechoslovakia]] (occupied by [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungary]] in 1938). On May 19, 1944 he was deported to the [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp.<ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mel-mermelstein-survived-auschwitz-then-sued-holocaust-deniers-court-180970123/ |title=Mel Mermelstein Survived Auschwitz, Then Sued Holocaust Deniers in Court |last=Sauer |first=Patrick |publisher= Smithsonian |date=2018-08-August 27, 2018 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=April 8, 2021}}</ref> On May 19, 1944, he was deported to the [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp.<ref name="Smithsonian"/> Mermelstein spent a little less than one year at Auschwitz, then in January 1945 he was sent on a [[Death marches during the Holocaust|death march]] with 3,200 other prisoners to the [[Gross-Rosen concentration camp]].<ref name="Smithsonian"/> From there he was sent on a train without food or water to [[Buchenwald concentration camp]], where he arrived with [[typhus]] weighing only 68 pounds.<ref name="Smithsonian"/> He spent two months at Buchenwald until he was liberated by U.S. troops on April 11, 1945.<ref name="Smithsonian"/><ref name="LA-Times">{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-0815-me-1425-story.html |title=Holocaust's Horrors: Survivor's Exhibit of Death Camp Artifacts Recalls Nazi Atrocities |date= April 15, 1988 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |accessdate=February 2, 2022 }}</ref> His parents, two sisters, and a brother were murdered in the camps. Before his father's death, Mermelstein had promised his father he would tell everyone what the Nazis were doing.<ref name="LA-Times"/>

In 1980, the [[Institute for Historical Review]] (IHR) promised a $50,000 reward to anyone who could prove that Jews were gassed at Auschwitz.<ref name="LA-Times"/>

Mermelstein wrote a [[letter to the editor]]s 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.{{citation<ref needed|datename=November"LA-Times"/> 2016}}

The IHR refused to pay the reward, stating that Mermelstein's notarized account was "not sufficient proof". Represented by public interest attorney [[William John Cox]], Mermelstein subsequently sued the IHR in the [[Superior Court of Los Angeles County]] for [[breach of contract]], [[anticipatory repudiation]], [[libel]], injurious denial of established fact, [[intentional infliction of emotional distress]], and [[declaratory relief]] (see [[case no. C 356 542]]). On October 9, 1981, both parties in the Mermelstein case filed motions for [[summary judgment]] in consideration of which Judge Thomas T. Johnson of the [[Superior Court of Los Angeles County]] took "[[judicial notice]] of the fact that Jews were gassed to death at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland during the summer of 1944,",<ref name="NYT"/><ref name="order">{{cite web | url = http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/m/mermelstein.mel/ftp.py?people/m/mermelstein.mel//mermelstein.order.072285 | title = Mel Mermelstein v. Institute for Historical Review Judgment and Statement of Record | accessdate = November 20, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110717102709/http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/m/mermelstein.mel/ftp.py?people%2Fm%2Fmermelstein.mel%2F%2Fmermelstein.order.072285 | archive-date = July 17, 2011 | url-status = dead }}</ref> judicial notice meaning that the court treated the gas chambers as common knowledge, and therefore did not require evidence that the gas chambers existed. On August 5, 1985, Judge Robert A. Wenke entered a judgment based upon the [[Stipulation]] for Entry of Judgment agreed upon by the parties on July 22, 1985. The judgment required IHR and other defendants to pay $90,000 to Mermelstein and to issue a letter of apology to "Mr. Mel Mermelstein, a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald, and all other survivors of Auschwitz" for "pain, anguish and suffering" caused to them.<ref name="order"/><ref name="LA-Times"/>

Mermelstein was portrayed by [[Leonard Nimoy]] and Cox was played by [[Dabney Coleman]] in a 1991 TV film, ''[[Never Forget (1991 film)|Never Forget]]'', about the 1981 lawsuit. He wrote of the court battle in his autobiography, titled ''By Bread Alone''.

HeMermelstein died from complications of [[COVID-19]] at home in [[Long Beach, California]], on January 28, 2022,. atHe the age ofwas 95.<ref name=nyt1/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/us/mel-mermelstein-dead.htmlnews | title = Mel Mermelstein, HolocaustAuschwitz Survivorsurvivor Whowho Suedchallenged DeniersHolocaust deniers, Diesdies at 95 |work date = February 1, 2022 | newspaper = [[The NewWashington York TimesPost]] |first=Sam|last=Roberts|date=1 Februaryurl = https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022|access/02/01/holocaust-datesurvivor-mel-mermelstein-dead/ | accessdate =2 FebruaryOctober 4, 2022 }}</ref>

* ''By bread alone'' (1981) Auschwitz Study Foundation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abebooks.com/9780960653409/Bread-Alone-Story-A-4685-Mermelstein-0960653406/plp|title=9780960653409: By Bread Alone: The Story of A-4685 - AbeBooks - Mel Mermelstein: 0960653406|website=www.abebooks.com|language=en|access-date=2017-05-May 29, 2017}}</ref> {{ISBN|0-9606534-0-6}}.

* [http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/m/mermelstein.mel/ Mel Mermelstein files] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050908084744/http://nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/m/mermelstein.mel/ |date=September 8, 2005 }} (Nizkor Archive Directory, Shofar FTP)

[[Category:People from Mukachevo Raion]]