Israel Gutman passed away

Gutman was born in Warsaw on 20 May 1923. He fought as a Jewish Combat Organisation (ŻOB) soldier in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when he was wounded. He was later shipped to Nazi concentration camps at Majdanek, Asuchwitz and Mauthausen-Gusen.

Gutman left Poland for good in 1946, when he joined the Lehavot Habashan kibbutz in Palestine, where he stayed for the next twenty-five years. Gutman finished historical studies at the Hebrew University as a Holocaust and Jewish resistance scholar. Gutman gave a witness testimony during the Eichmann’s trial in 1961. Associated with the Yad Vashem Institute, Gutman worked there as the chief historian, the head of the Holocaust history international research team and as an academic counselor. He worked there until 2011. Gutman lectured at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and sat on the scientific-research committee of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.

Gutman was famous for his involvement in Polish affairs. He was one of the Polish President’s counselors on Holocaust-related matters. From 2000 to 2012, Gutman was the deputy President of the International Auschwitz Council. In 1995, Gutman was conferred an honorary doctorate title at the University of Warsaw. He also edited the Polish edition of  “The Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust”.  Gutman had an exquisite command of the Polish language and Polish culture. Furthermore, he never stopped to closely follow the current events in Poland. Gutman always checked the weather forecast in Warsaw.

Israel Gutman actively participated in the creation of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, engaging in various stages of the design of the core exhibition. He helped as an expert counselor and contributed to various galleries, especially the ones on the Holocaust and on postwar years.