About
Founded in 1978 by Holocaust survivor Mel Mermelstein, the Auschwitz Study Foundation preserves and shares the lessons of the Holocaust to deepen our understanding of our common humanity and our individual responsibility to one another.
Mel survived Auschwitz-Birkenau and devoted much of his life to ensuring that what he witnessed would neither be forgotten nor denied.
Through his art, historical collection, teaching, and landmark legal battle against Holocaust denial, he demonstrated that memory carries a responsibility: to preserve truth, confront hatred and indifference, and help future generations recognize the human consequences when conscience fails.
The Next Chapter
Today, the Auschwitz Study Foundation is carrying Mel's work forward in new ways.
The Foundation is thoughtfully curating Mel Mermelstein's extensive collection into smaller, focused exhibitions that can be loaned to established Holocaust museums and educational institutions throughout the United States. By making portions of the collection more accessible, we hope to bring its history, and the human stories it preserves, to communities far beyond its original home in Southern California.
The Foundation is also developing educational study programs in Kraków and at Auschwitz-Birkenau. These carefully designed journeys will bring participants to the places where this history occurred, combining historical study with reflection on humanity, ethical responsibility, moral courage, and the choices individuals and institutions make in the face of injustice.
Our purpose is not simply to preserve the past.
It is to ask what the past requires of us now.
Truth. Memory. Responsibility.
The eyewitness generation is passing. The responsibility to remember and to act on what we have learned now belongs to all of us.
The Auschwitz Study Foundation is committed to preserving historical truth, expanding access to Mel Mermelstein's collection, and creating meaningful educational experiences that encourage people to confront hatred and indifference with knowledge, compassion, courage, and humanity.
We must learn from the horrors of the past so that we do not repeat them.
Our Mission
Using Holocaust artifacts and art, to educate generations to come and memorialize the past while cultivating peace.
Our Vision
That we honor survivors of the holocaust and learn from our past to create a world filled with peace, compassion and justice.