Israel Gutman (
Hebrew: ישראל גוטמן; 20 May 1923 – 1 October 2013) was a
Polish-born Israeli historian and a survivor of
the Holocaust.[1]
Biography
Israel (Yisrael) Gutman was born in
Warsaw,
Second Polish Republic. After participating and being wounded in the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, he was deported to the
Majdanek,
Auschwitz and
Mauthausen concentration camps.[2] His parents and siblings died in the ghetto.[3] In January 1945, he survived the death march from Auschwitz to Mauthausen, where he was liberated by U.S. forces. In the immediate post-war period, he joined the
Jewish Brigade in Italy.[3] In 1946, he immigrated to
Mandate Palestine and joined
KibbutzLehavot HaBashan, where he raised a family. He was a member of the kibbutz for 25 years.[3] In 1961, he testified at the trial of
Adolf Eichmann.[3]
Academic career
Gutman was a professor of history at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and deputy chairman of the International Auschwitz Council at
Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.[2] He was the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust[2] and won the
Yitzhak Sadeh Prize for Military Studies.[3] At
Yad Vashem, he headed the International Institute for Holocaust Research (1993–1996), served as Chief Historian (1996–2000) and was the Academic Advisor (from 2000).[3] He was also an advisor to the Polish government on Jewish Affairs, Judaism and Holocaust Commemoration.[3]