Holocaust survivor creates museum to honor those killed 70 years ago
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- It was an emotional day in Auschwitz, Poland where about 300 Holocaust survivors were honored guests at ceremonies to commemorate the liberation of the concentration camp 70 years ago.
People also remembered the liberation in Southern California, and one of those is a survivor who has created a museum in Huntington Beach.
Mel Mermelstein, 88, has spent decades collecting items for the museum so that others will not forget what happened. His family says it is a private collection and is not open to the public at this time.
Many of the items in his museum were acquired after dozens of visits to the concentration camp.
"This is not just killing. This is unbelievably doing away with human beings like trash," he said.
In 1944, then 17-year-old Mermelstein and his family, Hungarian-born Jews, were transported to Auschwitz. He carries a permanent reminder of the camp: the identification number tattooed on his arm.
He was also the only member of his family to survive.
"My mother, she was only 44 years of age. My two sisters, both went to the gas chambers. My father and brother were selected for slave labor, just like me. My father was killed there, and my brother attempted to escape and he was shot," he said.
Mermelstein said he realizes the number of survivors is dwindling and he's spent his life to make sure others will remember. In the 1980s, a group called the Institute for Historical Review offered $50,000 for proof that Jews were gassed. When Mermelstein provided evidence, the institute failed to pay and he sued.
A judge ruled in Mermelstein's favor and a court ordered the group to pay him $90,000 and write a public apology.
Mermelstein said the court took judicial notice of how Jewish people died at Auschwitz, which he said is the most important detail of the case.
"What was done to the Jews was not done to any other people, ever...Those of us who did survive, they don't even know why they survived," he said.
