BY BREAD ALONE - THE STORY OF A-4685 MEL MERMELSTEIN A SURVIVER OF THE NAZI HOLOCAUST - a Nazi Holocaust survivor who in 1981 filed a lawsuit for $17 million and $50,000 against the Institute for Historical Review - a California-based organization of revisionists and pseudo-historians who claim that the Nazi Holocaust is nothing more than a fiction, a Zionist plot" - one of the most important publications of the 20th century against Holocaust deniers by a Holocaust survivor himself - Second edition, California 1981 - dedicated copy by the author dated October 15, 1989.
Mel Mermelstein [1926 – January 28, 2022] was a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor, the only survivor of his entire family which were exterminated in Auschwitz. Mermelstein was born in Orosvíg, Ukraine, near Mokachevo. On May 19, 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz, where he spent a little less than a year, and in January 1945 he was sent on a death march with 3,200 other prisoners to Gross-Rosen concentration camp. From there he was sent on a train without food and water to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he arrived with typhus, weighing only 68 kilograms. He spent two months in Buchenwald until he was liberated by the Allies on April 11, 1945. His parents, two sisters and brother were murdered in the camps. Before the execution of his father, Mermelstein promised him that he would publicize the crimes of the Nazis all over the world. Mermelstein is the prisoner who is seen lying on the wooden bunk on the right in the upper bed, in the famous photograph taken by the Allies at the liberation of Buchenwald - which appears on the cover of the book.
In the book before us, which was published in the midst of Mermelstein's struggle against the Holocaust deniers with whom he confronted, he tells in detail the story of his capture by the Nazis, his stay in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and his rescue. Since his goal was clear - to reveal the whole truth about what was happening in the death camps, Mermelstein describes things exactly as they happened, without sparing the harsh words and descriptions, even when describing abuse, humiliations, selection, executions of individuals and mass executions carried out by the Nazis. The book is accompanied by harsh photographs of scenes from the death camps, as well as documents proving the Nazi crimes.
As part of his struggle against Holocaust deniers, he proved beyond a doubt that the Holocaust of the Jews of Europe and the extermination of the Jews in the gas chambers is a historical fact that cannot be questioned and cannot be challenged in the courts, to the extent that this was determined in a precedent ruling. In the 1980s, Mermelstein spoke out against the Neo-Nazi Institute for Historical Review, and won. In 1980, the Institute for Historical Review offered a monetary reward of $50,000 to anyone proving that Jews had been gassed in Auschwitz. In response, Mermelstein wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Times and the Jerusalem Post against the Institute. The Institute repeatedly offered Marmelstein the prize if he could prove his statement. Mermelstein submitted a notarized statement in which he testified that he saw his mother and sisters being taken to the gas chambers. The Institute for Historical Review refused to award him the prize, claiming that his testimony was insufficient proof. Through attorney John Cox, Marmelstein sued the Institute in the Los Angeles Supreme Court for breach of contract, deception, defamation, denial of proven facts for unjust purposes, and causing emotional distress. Both sides asked the justices to issue a statement. Mermelstein argued that the Institute's demand for "evidence" on the use of gas chambers is in itself offensive. The Institute, on the other hand, claimed that Mermelstein had not proven the gassing of Jews and therefore they were exempt from paying him. In 1981, Mermelstein won his struggle to prove the historical truth, when Judge Thomas Johnson ruled in his favor that the fact of using gas to exterminate Jews constitutes judicial knowledge that does not need to be proven in court. Later in the struggle in 1985, Judge Robert Wonka ruled in favor of Mermelstein and ruled that the Institute for Historical Review must pay him $90,000 and issue him and all the survivors a public apology.
At the same time, Mermelstein waged another legal battle. In 1980, Holocaust denier Dielib Felderer published hate articles in an issue of "The Jewish Information Bulletin". In one of his articles, an open letter appeared to the residents of Long Beach, where Mermelstein lived, in which he mocks him and calls him a racist. In 1981, Mermelstein sued Felderer. As part of the prosecution, he testified about his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz death camp. In addition, the psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Bornstein, who treats Mermelstein, testified at the trial about his emotional state, and said that after a long and massive treatment, Mermelstein's condition improved, and in 1973, he was defined as mentally healthy, but following Felderer's publications, there was a serious setback in his condition. The court ruled in favor of Mermelstein, and awarded damages of $5 million.
In 1986, the Institute sued Mermelstein for libel, but cancelled it two years later. Mermelstein sued the Institute again in 1988 following an advertisement in their magazine. The 1991 television film "Never Forget", starring Leonard Nimoy, tells the story of Mermelstein and the lawsuit against the Institute. Mermelstein died in Long Beach, United States on January 28, 2022.
For Marmelstein's moving speech in which he tells his story and goes against Holocaust deniers see here .
XVI, 290 p. 22 cm. Condition very good .
