Joe Gutovitz

Of Blessed Memory 1918 – 1996

Joseph Gutovitz grew up in Bialobrzegi, Poland. After losing his first wife in the Warsaw ghetto, Joe moved home to Bialobrzegi where, in 1942, he was taken by the Nazis, along with two of his brothers, to the Skarżysko ammunition complex and to the Częstochowa slave labor camp. However, he remained in Częstochowa when his brothers were sent to Buchenwald. He was liberated in Częstochow by the Soviets. In 1946, he was reunited with his brothers at the Landsberg displaced persons camp, where they celebrated their weddings in one ceremony under a single wedding canopy. In 1949, Joe, his wife Bertha, and their first child came to the United States.