New Order of Canada member Pinchas Gutter says his Holocaust education work isn't over yet
Gutter is one of 88 new appointees named to the Order of Canada last month
Now in his 90s, Pinchas Gutter has been named a member of the Order of Canada for decades of work in Holocaust education. But he says his work is far from over.
"I can't stop. I have two great grandchildren," Gutter told The Current's host Matt Galloway. "And they don't yet know of any [such] thing as antisemitism. And I would like the world for them to [stay like that]."
Gutter is one of 88 appointees named to the Order of Canada by Governor General Mary Simon last month. Some of his Holocaust education work includes taking part in a high-tech video project to preserve and share his stories of the Holocaust, writing a book about his experience that's used by educators across the country, and the many talks he's given to students over the years.
Gutter says the appointment means "more than anything" to him because it signals that the Governor General and Canadians are interested in building a better world for everyone. Here's part of his conversation with Galloway.
It took you years before you talked about what you had lived through. Why is that?
The first time that I was asked to speak, it was in the '60s. I was approached to speak at [a] commemoration of the Holocaust at a cemetery in a place called East London in South Africa, where there was a small Jewish community.
I decided that I would make a speech and the speech would be involving Holocaust experiences, but at the same time, talking about the existing situation in South Africa [with apartheid]. And I gave that speech and it was well received.
After that I started having nightmares. … I used to scream during the night and wake up and then have to go to work. And I decided that I can't continue speaking because if this is going to continue like that, it would be impossible.
And the nightmares were about what you had lived through?
When you go in Majdanek [a Nazi extermination camp] … if you go to the left, you go to the gas chamber. If you go to the right, you go to be … a worker. And I lost my parents and my twin sister because they were gassed, murdered the day we arrived. And I was spared.
And so these are the nightmares. I was being gassed. I was being chased. All the experiences that I had.
Dorothy, your wife, how did she help you cope with those?
She was an angel.
When I woke up screaming, she would calm me down. She would look after the children and keep them away from my experiences, so they shouldn't have this … trauma.
What was it like for you to go back to those camps years later?
It wasn't easy. I've been back 20 times to Poland and Germany but the beauty of it was that I was surrounded with Canadian students from all different universities.
And we had … briefings every night. And they could actually kind of open up with their own problems … which they kind of kept inside them. It helped them by seeing a Holocaust survivor talking about the Holocaust and seeing and talking about other things that happened in the Second World War in Poland and in Germany. It helped them to open and to be able to deal with their own things.
Is that why you use the word beautiful to describe that experience of going back to the camps with those young people?
Well, what was beautiful is to be able to share something and to feel the closeness, the empathy from people from every creed, colour, religion or anything like that. It made me feel that the world is actually a very beautiful place.
And they accepted me without any compunction. The empathy that was flowing … between us was so, so beautiful that it actually helped me to tell the stories and to continue with my work.
We have seen an explosion of antisemitism in this country and around the world. How does that strike you?
Well, it makes me very sad. I have been an optimist all my life.
[But] I still believe. And the reason why I believe is because when I think about the 1930s and I think about what's happened today regardless of anything, the world has moved in the right direction.
Why? Because in the '30s, nobody wanted to take refugees.
[Now] people are trying to help others and it's become something that is important. So I am still optimistic about the world moving in the right direction slowly.
You're being celebrated by the governor general for your life's work and you're in your 90s now. You could relax. Why is it important for you to keep going?
I don't … want people to tolerate people. I want them to accept people. Because when you tolerate, you make a decision about "OK, he's a Jew, but he's a good Jew" or "He's a Black man, but he's a good Black man … so I will tolerate him."
I want acceptance. Every human being should be accepted. I believe that as long as I've got breath in my body, then I need to continue doing [that].
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Interview with Pinchas Gutter produced by Ines Colabrese. Q&A edited for length and clarity