By Matt Buie, FSWC Educator

As a longtime Holocaust educator, Pinchas Gutter has worked tirelessly to teach the history behind this tragic event.

Pinchas and his twin sister, Sabina, were born on July 21, 1932, in Łódź, Poland. In the beginning of the Holocaust, he was sent with his mother and sister to Warsaw where they lived in the ghetto. His father later joined them. Although the family survived both the deportations and the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, they were later detained and sent to Majdanek concentration camp, where Pinchas was separated from his family. After surviving a beating from a Nazi officer, he was sent to a labour camp to manufacture mines and ammunition for the war effort. Pinchas was relocated to Buchenwald and then survived the death march to Theresienstadt where he was liberated in 1945.

After the war, Pinchas lived in England for a time before joining his cousin in Paris in 1948. Two years later, on his 18^th birthday, after moving to Israel, he joined the army. While serving in the IDF, he met his future wife, Dorothy. He moved to England to be with her in 1956 and married her in January 1957. They later moved to Brazil in 1958, and then South Africa in 1959.

After arriving in Canada in 1985, Pinchas was persuaded to share his story with a history professor by the name of Paula Draper. This marked the beginning of Pinchas’ legacy as an educator and he quickly made it a priority to share his story with as many people as possible in order to create more inclusive communities.

Pinchas has spoken at many events and schools, sharing his compelling testimony with thousands of students. He has participated in the annual March of Remembrance and Hope, as well as the March of the Living in Poland where he has accompanied young people on visits to Holocaust sites. His book, Memories in Focus, details his struggles to survive and heal his soul.

Pinchas was also the first person to test-drive the “Dimensions of Testimony” technology, a project that allows people now and in the future, to listen and engage with survivors of genocide through an interactive hologram. Although it took nearly five days to film 25 hours of footage, he persevered to ensure that his legacy would always be easily accessible to all.

For all of his efforts, Pinchas Gutter was appointed last month to the Order of Canada.

You can introduce your students to Pinchas as he recounts his experiences in this interview with the Visual History Foundation or ask him questions yourself using the Dimensions of Testimony program on the iWitness website.