נתן גוטווירט

Nathan Gutwirth (1916-1999), Holocaust survivor and diamond merchant, born in Antwerp, Belgium, to Polish born orthodox parents who later went to live in Scheveningen, Holland, and became Dutch citizens. The young man went to study Talmud at the Telz yeshiva in Lithuania, where he met and became friendly with Jan Zwartendijk, representative of the Phillips Company in Lithuania. Zwartendijk regularly gave Gurtwirth Dutch newspapers and the two spent many hours discussing Dutch football in which they were both interested. In 1940 Lithuania, in accordance with the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact, was annexed by the Soviet Union and then one year later it was attacked and occupied by Nazi Germany. Many Jews realised that they were in a trap. Gutwirth approached his friend Zwartendijk, who in the meantime had been appointed honorary Dutch consul in Kovna (Kaunas), after his predecessor was dismissed on account of his Nazi sympathies. As a Dutch citizen, Gutwirth should theoretically have had no problem in leaving the country, but the Russians were hardly more hospitable to the Jews than the Nazis. So the two devised a scheme whereby Gutwirth would receive a visa to enter the Dutch colony of Curacao – which was in fact unnecessary since Dutch citizens did not need an entry visa for Curacao, but with the aid of this “non-visa-visa” he would be able to obtain permission to transit the USSR. Gutwirth then obtained a visa to enter Japan from where, he explained, he would travel to Curacao.

While at the yeshiva at Telz Gutwirth had frequently been offered hospitality by a local Chassidic family, Rabbi and Mrs Minz. He offered to take with him to Curacao one of their daughters, Nechama, in order to save her life. The plan worked. They both arrived in Japan safely.

A short while after his arrival in Japan Gutwirth heard of a shipload of 74 Jews arrived in the port of Kobe, but were not allowed to land because they had omitted to obtain a “non-visa visa” for Curacao or a visa for some other final destination. The ship was forced to return them to Vladivostok, Russia. Gutwirth set to work to obtain these visas for them but it would take a few days. To gain valuable time he fabricated a telegram purporting to be signed by the USA ambassador in Japan in which the captain of the vessel was instructed to return to Kobe since the USA had now agreed to accept his passengers. Understandably the Japanese Post Office was reluctant to accept his claim that he was authorised by the US embassy to send the telegram. He did not give up and finally found a post office agency which agreed to his request. When the ship returned to port, destination visas had, at his request, been issued by the Dutch consul in Kobe and these 74 Jews including the Amshinover Rebbe who was on the ship, were saved.

The young Gutwirth couple, however, had no intention of continuing to Curacao. Instead they went to the Dutch East Indies, today Indonesia, where they decided to marry. Nathan then joined the Dutch army. When the Japanese invaded Indonesia he was taken prisoner and spent the remaining 3 ½ years of the war as a librarian in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. In 1946, after the end of World War II, the couple went to the USA where they lived for some thirteen years. In 1958, wishing to be reunited with the remains of their family, he returned to Europe, settled in Antwerp and built up the family diamond business. He became prosperous and a benefactor to many Jewish and general charities. He founded “Tikvateinu”, an organization to help severely disadvantaged children to realize their full potential and take a full part in society. The organization is active in Antwerp until today. Some of the funds for Tikvateinu were donated by Nathan's Israeli cousin Aaron Gutwirth who was a successful industrialist Gutwirth died in Antwerp in 1999.