Learn more about her book “Perseverance” about family, loss, and faith
From the Eldred WWII Museum,
Eldred, PA – Author, and Daughter of Melvin Goldman, a Holocaust survivor, will speak at the Museum on Wednesday April 15th.
Kikel, will speak on Wednesday April 15th at 6:30 pm in the Museum’s Mitchell Paige Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
Kikel will speak about her Father’s experience as a Holocaust survivor and his journey from Poland to living in America as portrayed in her book “Perseverance” Join Lee as she brings history to life with a stirring story of family, loss, and faith.
Lee Goldman Kikel grew up in the Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, where much of her early years were spent in her family’s jewelry business.
Goldman Kikel’s father, Melvin Goldman, did not talk much about his childhood in Poland, or his family. At some point during the 1970s, he quietly began recording his experiences, sharing extensive details with his tape recorder. His series of recorded cassette tapes sat, unheard, for nearly fifty years until 2015, when she rediscovered them and finally listened to his testimony. He requested his story be transcribed into a book, and Lee honored his wishes, completing Perseverance: One Holocaust Survivor’s Journey From Poland to America in 2019. The book details his childhood in Lodz, the establishment of the ghetto, surviving Auschwitz and multiple other concentration camps, liberation and recuperation aided by the US Army and related physicians and nurses, traveling to the United States, and establishing a home and business in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh’s Prime Stage Theatre commissioned a theatrical adaptation of the memoir, Perseverance, which debuted in April 2023. Later, Lee sat down with the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber) and participated in an interview telling her family’s story for their Moments in History series. The short documentary film, “Moments in History: Melvin Goldman” premiered in early 2025 and won an Emmy award from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
In the time since publication, Lee has shared her family’s story with audiences across the region and beyond, including as a generation’s speaker with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. These speaking engagements contribute to ongoing discussions about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.
