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CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH
HUNTMOTON BEACH
CITY COUNCIL COMMUNICATION
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TO: City Council a {-,_—",v
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FROM: Mayor Peter Green �o c
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DATE: February 9, 1999 � , x "x
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SUBJECT: AUSCHWITZ STUDY FOUNDATION
COUNCIL AGENDA, H ITEM, MARCH 1
Mr. Mel Mermelstein, Founder, and representatives of the Auschwitz Study Foundation
of Huntington Beach, met with Michael Mudd and me on February 8, 1999. The group
has requested advice and guidance in finding a permanent location for a museum and
studies center.
I request staff review the center's proposal, provide information and limited assistance
to the Auschwitz Study foundation in its efforts and return to Council with a report of its
findings.
Cc: Ray Silver, City Administrator
Connie Brockway, City Clerk
Ron Hagan, Community Services Director
RECEIVED FROM t'L(it �I�%I+N_1 Sr+ 9 - r"�aCa
AND MADE A PART OF THE REC D AT HE' i + COUNCIL MEETING OFOFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK
CONNIE BROC WAY,CITY CLERK .
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STUDY FOUNDATION, INC.
A Non-Profit Educational Foundation
Volume 1, Issue 1 March 1999
Holocaust Exhibit Seeks permanent housing of this historic exhibit for
Permanent O.C. Location the purpose of providing Orange County
and the world with an educational venue to
teach the holocaust.
The.Auschwitz Study Foundation, a The proposed "Auschwitz Study
non-profit organization founded in 1977 by Foundation Center for Truth" would house
Mel Mermelstein, is actively looking for an Mermelstein's collection and provide lecture
Orange County location to house a facilities where public and private schools
substantial collection of artifacts and can bring their students for an educational
documentation from the Nazi Holocaust. and profound experience.
Over the last 55 years, Mr. ASF is currently working with the City
Mermelstein has collected and preserved an of Huntington Beach among other Orange
astounding number of original artifacts and County constituents to find a suitable
numerous news publications, books and location as soon as possible.
other documentation relating to the Nazi
Holocaust. Yad Vashem visits
Mr. Mermelstein, a survivor of Mel Mermelstein's Exhibit
Auschwitz-Birkenau and sole survivor of his
family, has continuously returned to the Excerpt from a letter addressed to Mel
origin of his deepest pain, for the main Mermelstein from Avner Shalev, Chairman
purpose of preserving the truth. of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel.
The Auschwitz Study Foundation
Exhibit is the culmination of Mermelstein's "I wish-to thank you again for you gracious
hospitality and for your openness. You
efforts and has been viewed by thousands. enabled me to view and to learn from your
Among other activities, Mr. Mermelstein collection and unique creation and to
actively lectures on his experiences in the undergo a profound experience in which you
camps. permitted me a glimpse of your memories
and thoughts which motivated you, through
Currently located in the City of the years, to collect and display, in your own
Huntington Beach, the ASF Exhibit is unique way, artifacts from the concentration
looking for a suitable space to provide camps."
P.O. Box 2232 .7422 Cedar Avenue • Huntington Beach, CA 92647• (714) 848-1101 • FAX (714) 842-1979
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O.C. College Student
plex, which housed the exhibit, and ob-
Visitor to Exhibit Writes served the frames on the walls, I was
stunned,and horrified. Once I saw the pic-
ture of thin, fragile.Jews in a concentration
Before I studied the Holocaust, I thought camp, the Holocaust had an identity. Be=
that it was an over-exaggerated incident. I fore, the Holocaust was just the Holocaust,
knew close to nothing about the Holocaust. nothing more and nothing less. Now, the
As I began to study, however, I became Holocaust had a face, one of death, horror,
shocked at learning the truth. My professor torture, and cruelty.
told my class that after studying the Holo- As I began to explore more of the walls, I
caust we would never view the world, our became sick. Until I saw a picture of
life, or people in the same way again, I women and children who were fragile and
thought he was exaggerating. He said, if my naivete allowed me to
diseased looking,
our perceptions of the universe aren't differ-
numb the idea that Nazis tortured women
ent after we study the Holocaust, then '
something must be wrong with us. Since and children. However, as I toured the ex-
my perceptions didn't change, I assumed ex-
hibit I was awakened. I was brought back to
r
that something was wrong with me. reality.
When my professor discussed the ASF When I saw_a shoe that was up on the wall,
Holocaust Exhibit with the class, I had the I saw the little girl who wore that shoe. In
impression that it was something minor. My that shoe, I also saw my own daughter.
perception of the exhibit was that it would When I saw a striped prisoner's uniform, I
consist of only a few items. When I arrived saw the man who wore it. He was probably
at Ideal Pallet, the business the exhibit cur- a father, a brother, an uncle, and a son. In
rently resides, I saw pallets stacked up high, that uniform, I saw my husband, my father,
and my uncle.
and when I looked around, I felt that none of
this looked as if it were suitable to contain Before visiting this exhibit, I thought that
an exhibition of the Holocaust. I said to my-
self, "This is a waste of time." I even began Jews were just...Jews. The exhibit brought
to wonder if I was at the wrong address. I part of the Holocaust to me. On that day, all
was not. of my views of the world had changed.
Night after night, the images of the exhibit
As my class assembled we were escorted tormented me. A question kept running
into atrailer-office by Mel Mermelstein, through my mind: "How can something like
which contained a few items of the exhibit. the Holocaust happen? Why did this exhibit
The trailer-office was like an appetizer be- affect me so much? Although I am not Jew-
fore the meal. The artwork in the trailer- ish, the exhibit changed my life. I can no
office, which was influenced by the Holo- longer tolerate violent movies.
caust didn't really affect me. I thought, This exhibit contains artwork of compassion.
"yeah, I can handle seeing a few pieces of silverware stuck to a frame and some ce-
That is what Mel Mermelstein is, and artist
ment from concentration camps." However, of compassion. I say this because, as you
nothing, nothing at all, prepared me for the see every piece within the exhibit, in one
"real" exhibit. way or another, you suffer with it. You can
see the suffering. You can feel the pain.
When I entered the 2,000 square foot com- This is how the exhibit affected me.
q Written by:
Vianka M. Cesena-Hemandez
Irvine Valley College Student
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SATURDAY,JANUARY 23,1999
COPYRIGHT 1999/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY/CCt/134 PAGES
Newport Beach/Costa Mesa Daily Pilot edthA 2 Saturday,January 23r1999
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ERON BEN-YEHUDA
Daily Pdot
p
o fully comprehend the mon-
rM,strous evil wrought by the Nazis
during the Holocaust,inSKI
which M HAGGERTYZYLIUS/DAILYPILOT
six million Jews were systematically
murdered,the personal stories of sur-
vivors must be heard. One such sur-
vivor, Mel Mermelstein,will tell his sto- Mermelstein eventually was trans-
ry at 7 p.m. Sunday at Temple Bat ferred%to Auschwitz,which he described
Yahm in Newport Beach. in his autobiographyB Bread Alone"
Driven from his hometown in Czecho- h
slovakia at the age of 17 and forced to s a "death factory" with "tall.chimneys
work as a slave in concentration camps spewing a peculiar reddish flame."
where he was starved and tortured,Mer- ' Inside,there were gas chambers s_
guised as showers,capable of disposing
melstein was finally liberated by the of 10,000 people a day,he wrote.
Allies, only to be further tortured by the
guilt of survivingwhile his father,mother, Upon arrival in Auschwitz, the pris-
oners were made to stand in line for
brother and sisters did not. inspection,he wrote. An officer would
There were times during his ordeal
when escape was a real possibility,but quickly look each person over and point
e chose:to stay. "I wanted to be with " with his finger either to the left or the
h
he family he said. right. Those to the left were to work,
Even when he was crammed like an those to the right were to die immedi-
animal into a railroad boxcar, the final ately in the gas chambers.
solution" to the "Jewish problem" was His mother was sent to the right and
too horrible to accept. his sisters were sent to the left, but his
Who expected anything other than older sister couldn't bear the separation.
[being] taken to a labor camp?," said "She leaped across and went over to
the still vigorous 72-year-old. "I wasn't my mother,and my kid sister followed,"
afraid to work." he said.
"We could have never conceived They all died.together.
that anything like this could be done by "There is something I would like to
k m "
man to his fellow man," he added. as
y twQ sisters, he said softly. "Are
You angry with me?They did not aban-
don my mother. I did."
His father aiid-brother died after
they were sent to work in a coal mine.
To maintain his sanity, Mermelstein
had to block out the-terrible pain and
suffering that surrounded him.
"You don't allow yourself to get sunk
Published by.7lmes Com"munriy News
.4>7PmesMirrorCompany �
Pi/nted m part on recycled paper
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Mel Mermelstein lived through the Holocaust, but he doesn't blame God for
the atrocities or.for being;the only surviving member of his family
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Holocaust survivor Mel Mermelstein,here at his exhibit in Huntington Beach,will speak Sunday at Temple Bat Yahan.
to the bottom of the pit," he said. "You the basis of a television movie, "Never '
deny the truth in order to be able to go Forget," starring Leonard Niinoy.
on and survive. Survival is not related to Mermelstem remains a religious man
heroism or genius.It's part of instinct." to this day,and doesn't blame God for
Almost a year before his liberation, what happened,
Mermelstein said the Allies knew about ; "We have evil and.we have good,"
the atrocities taking place on,a daily he said. "You have a.choice.Mankind,
basis. during,that period, chose to embrace
"Why are they allowing this to evil.It was up to mankind to correct the
exist?" he said he remembers thinking caurse."
while imprisoned. "Why don't they "` He has no patience for those who
bomb [the camp], including me?" stein recalls his father saying. "To this argue that Nazi soldiers were simply
Many people living near the concen- day I go back and I want to recapture following orders,
tration camps knew what was taking the feelings that I have when I discov- ".That is'bull, outright bull," he said
place but they, too, did nothing. "As ered that I had no one left." heatedly. "If I was ever told, 'You shoot
long as it didn't happen to them, why In 1980,Merinelstem said he was that boy because he is what he is,`I
get involved?" he said with disgust. offered$50,000 by a neo-Nazi group to would say,'No,you would have to shoot
Mermelstein was liberated in April prove that the Jews were actually gassed me.'You have to know what is right."
1945 but there was little cause for cele- in Auschwitz.If he didn't come up with He:says the fact that he survived
bration, the proof,the group, called the Institute while so many perished will haunt him 4
Soon he emigrated to America. for Historical Review,threatened to to his dying days: $
Some survivors prefer not to speak 'expose him to the media as.a fraud. "Tell.me, God,why did you have to 3
about the nightmare they lived through, They were convinced that they leave me here?," he said'. a'tremor
but Mermelstein remembers what his could convince you," he said. in his voice. "When I get there, I'll ask
father told him. He sued the institute in 1981 and him. He couldn't tell me right now. He
"If you do [survive], don't forget to won a judgment for$90,000 as well as a probably wants to say, 'life is pre-
tell them what they did to us," Mermel- letter of apology.His court battle was cious. ',
. I ro
THE ORANGE COUNI^Y REGISTER, MONDAY, APRIL 27, 1998
ZINO
Auschwitz A survivor brinns OMCM
HOLOCAUST: His, SlAl;y lined with age,his arm still.hears
elll.hrall$ Sc1Pes Of pe0_ the clear tattoo: A-4695. And his
memory of those tlnys is no Tess
ple fit, a. fll.ir celellrllling clear.
the 50th 11.111livel'Sfl.11, Of Ile Told of his family wearing
layer upon layer of clothes to out-
the ftllllllling Of lSl'll.el. wit the Nazis, who reportedly
stole all parcels upon arrivnl at
By TERt SFORZA the camps. By life third day in
The Orange County Register the dark,crammed boxcar,Mer-
'I'Ire barbed wire, rusted long melsteir►said, he began to hallu-
ago, i;; bent into a ;;tar of David. ciliate.
Once,it marked a simple line he- When the Train finally stopped
tween life and death: life on the and the dorws slid open,everyone J
outside, hell on the inside. stumbled. oml, filthy and he-
Now it symbolized the indomi- nutnrbed. Lenve your bundles be-
table sjririt of Nazi camp survi- hind, they were told. You'll get
vors like Mel Mermelstein. then later.
When he was 17,Mernelstein's "The Nazis sorted out the hest
family was loaded onto boxcars stuff for themselves," Mermel-
and shipped off to Auschwitz-Ilir- stein said. "The rest remained
ketiau. His mother, father, two on the ground. I was able to ob-
sisters and a brother died in the Lain some of it."
camps. Ile, alone, sm•vived• Ile gathered more t,nrhed wire
Pcollie leaned close to hear and old utensils on Irips he made
Iblermelslein tell his tragic histo- after the war, fashioning them
ry as the comity's largest and into the words "Auschwitz" and
roost festive Jewish Community
Fair celebrating Israel's 50111 "Sd he victims'ler's
List."
souls are n
The v
cv-
birthday surged around him Sun- a
day at UCI's Aldrich Park.'I'her a ery one of These items,' said
were 8,000 visitors,and hundreds Please see SURVIVOR Page 3
of booths. listeners could have
visited the pelting zoo or ridden -- - - -- --�—�--
the train. 13ut many simply lis-
tened to Mermelstein speak as he
signed copies of his memoir at a
booth.
flair white now, kindly face
v SURVIVOR
FROM 1
Mermelstein, who- now runs a •, '_
lumber company in .Huntington
Beach. "I don't think I would
have lived,had I not gone back to
Auschwitz to bring.a little"of it
back here." = -
He's written a book'about life
in the camps,`By Bread Alone."
o And he's working on raising -
funds for a Holocaust Tolerance
Educational Center for Orange - =
County. Y
V "We don't want to wallow in
sorrow of it," said Iry Golper, a
friend of Mermelstein and chair-
man of the committee trying to
build the center. "We want peo-
ple to realize there is a lesson inLU '
W all this—about tolerance for all
people."
Mermelstein went to Israel in
I 1%1.Imagine,a land where Jew- `R
ish law is the law, he thought z
then. :
Bob Yonowitz of Trabuco Can-
yon is half Mermelstein's age.
He visited Israel in 1993. Spent
the Sabbath at the Western Wall
iin Jerusalem. Climbed the sa-
cred Masada,where his brethren ry _
carried Torahs up the mountain = =.
and were bar and bas mitzvahed
beneath a huge prayer shawl.
"The existence of Israel meanswe - EUGEME GARUMhe Orange County Register
that have a safe haven in the world REMEMBRANCE: Holocaust survivor Mel Mermelstein stands beside art made from materials he retrieved
op Jewish ideals for our children,_ tat will always foster and el- from Auschwitz. 'The victims'souls are in every one of these items,' he told fair-goers Sunday at UCI.
and our children's children,"
Yonowitz said. "Being Jewish is hesive community. But the con- at the hands of the Nazis,the Pal- are celebrating this big 50 year
both a religion and'a culture.It's flicts of half a world away have estinians suffer at the hands of anniversary, and we have been
based on an understanding that found their way here. the Zionist movement," said completely oppressed for SO
f we become better people through Not far from the festivities, Maki Al-Nooh of Huntington years," he said.
learning." about 15 protesters peacefully Beach. Mermelstein, despite all, has
In Orange County, the Jewish carried signs on behalf of Pales- Mohammed Shaikley, a fresh- hope for the feuding peoples of
Community Center hopes Isra- tine. "Israel is an apartheid man at the University of Califor- Israel and Palestine. "I have a
f el's birthday will help-unite its state,""Torture is Legal in Isra- nia, Irvine, nodded toward the . feeling,"he said,"genuine peace
70.000 local Jews into a more co- el." "Even as the Jews suffered traditional Israeli music. "They will come."
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