In 2023, for its 110th Anniversary Magazine, the IJN paired four teen interviewers with four Holocaust survivors for “Holocaust Across the Generations.” Ami Gelman, then in 9th grade at Denver Academy of Torah, interviewed Cantor Zachary Kutner. The project was conceived and stewarded by IJN Assistant Publisher Shana Goldberg. It is published online following the death of Cantor Kutner this week.
Before meeting Cantor Zachary Kutner, I thought I already knew a lot about him from reading his memoir and had a general idea of what he went through. Shortly into my interview with him, however, I realized that I was wrong. He had much more to say than what he wrote in his memoir, and his story and experiences are much more heroic, brave and inspiring than I could ever have imagined.
Meeting him in person was a huge part of this. His personality can only be described as positive, and even at 97 he walked up and down the stairs to get to the Intermountain Jewish News headquarters. His personality inspired me and gave me hope that people can go through the darkest of times and go on to live a fulfilling and spiritual life.
Cantor Kutner was born in Poremba (Poreba in Polish), Poland. He was the youngest of four and had two brothers and a sister. Poremba was a steel and agricultural hub in southern Poland. Cantor Kutner enjoyed growing up there. During our interview, he told me in his signature Yiddish accent, “The town was a beautiful town. We had a grocery store, and across the street, across the highway, was a lake, a mile long with all kinds of fish. And I used to love it.”
There were 15 Jewish families in the town and no rabbi, although a rabbi did come from a neighboring larger town every now and then.
Some of Cantor Kutner’s fondest memories from his childhood in Poremba are of his father davening at the shul in town. He told me with a smile that his “father was a baal koreh [Torah reader] and a chazzan [cantor]. He knew the Torah by heart.”
Later in his life, Cantor Kutner followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming the cantor at many shuls in Denver, including at BMH for 25 years as well as earlier at the (now defunct) Ostrover synagogue on the West Side.
In 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, Cantor Kutner was turning 15. The Germans took his father and thousands of others from the town as retribution for a German soldier who was killed by a Polish boy. Cantor Kutner says that he never saw his father again. After this, Cantor Kutner, like many other Jews in Poland at the time, was rounded up by the Nazis. He was sent to several camps, including the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau, which became the most recognizable concentration and extermination camp from the Holocaust.
While in Auschwitz, Cantor Kutner was subjected multiple times to the camp’s barbaric selection process, where Nazi officers, including Dr. Josef Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death,” would decide which prisoners were fit for work and which were not. Those who were not fit would be sent to the gas chambers or otherwise executed.
Cantor Kutner made it through the first selection process when he first arrived at Auschwitz, and six subsequent ones which occurred once a month while he was in the camp. According to Cantor Kutner, he survived the selection process and the camps only because of G-d’s will.
After almost five years of being sent from camp to camp, the war began to show signs of ending. Cantor Kutner was in a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp when the Americans began to bomb the area, specifically the city of Landshut.
“They took us to clean up the bombing . . . we went to a bridge.” It was there that Cantor Kutner witnessed an act of kindness that showcased the good in humanity but also the cruelty of the Nazis. “There was a lady walking on a Sunday in a nice dress with her daughter,” he recalled, nearly 78 years later. “The lady took out an apple from her purse and gave it to the little girl. We went on a bridge. She rolled the apple to us. I picked it up, I put it in my pocket.”
This act of kindness blew Cantor Kutner away. “At least there are some people that have a little piece of heart,” he said. However, shortly after, when he returned to the camp after cleaning the bridge, he was caught with the apple, and it was taken away from him.
“He took away the apple,” recalled Cantor Kutner. “Now I say this is barbarism. Hitler doesn’t have to see this. Hitler didn’t know, have to know from this. Let him have a piece of heart to know what we are going through.”
A short time after the apple episode Cantor Kutner was transported from Dachau through the Alps toward Seefeld in Tirol by rail. The prisoners were given one loaf of bread and a sleeping bag. They were told that they should make the bread last for a week. The prisoners were taken to a forest, “near a river and big rocks,” he said, and forced to crawl on all fours.
He and his fellow prisoners were supposed to be shot there. However, the general never came because, allegedly, his wife talked him out of coming, and instead he ran off. The rest of the soldiers, except for one, followed suit.
Reflecting on the one soldier who was left to supervise thousands of prisoners, Cantor Kutner said that the soldier was so close to him that he could have tripped him and then escaped, but “we were so enslaved that we let him do whatever he wanted. We were afraid.”
That soldier led the prisoners to a main road that was near several towns. The townspeople gave the prisoners food, but many of their stomachs could not handle it, and they died.
The next day, Cantor Kutner was liberated by the Americans.
Connection to Judaism
Cantor Kutner shared a story with me about how he put on tefilin [phylacteries] for two days when he was in Auschwitz. It was smuggled to the men’s side of the camp from the women’s side. According to Cantor Kutner, the women’s barracks were right next to the area where the Nazis stored everyone’s suitcases. He told me, with a face full of wonder, “In camp, in Auschwitz, I lay tefilin, two days.”
This story was extremely surprising to me at first. I could not believe that he would risk his life just to put on tefilin, but as our interview together went on I realized that this type of behavior is ingrained into Cantor Kutner’s personality. He is an extremely spiritual man who cares deeply for the Jewish people.
For example, at the end of our interview, I asked Cantor Kutner if he had ever been to Israel and his face immediately lit up. He told me that he had been to Israel at least four times and that his experiences there were “amazing.” He told me that he believes that people do not even fully understand what Israel can do for them.
This perspective makes sense, especially coming from a survivor who lived in a world where there was no place for the Jewish people to escape. Sometimes as a teen, I find it scary to see all of these terrible headlines about issues in Israel, but the fact Israel exists is a miracle. We are used to always having it to fall back on, but Cantor Kutner knows what it is like to live in a world without Israel.
One of the final questions I asked Cantor Kutner was: If he could give one piece of advice to teenagers right now, what would it be? He immediately responded with a stern look on his face, “To pack das Päckli [pack your bags] and go to Israel.”
This is one of the many unique perspectives that Holocaust survivors can give to the world, especially teens. Many teens, including me, sometimes feel apathy toward Israel. It is constantly being discussed, but America has everything we need, right? While that may be true, there is nothing more powerful than also to have a Jewish state.
However, it is up to Jews to ensure that the Jewish state holds up to their moral standards and is doing the right thing. Cantor Kutner knows what it is like when there is no one to stand up for the Jews, but luckily, with Israel’s existence, that does not happen anymore. Jews can be confident that there will always be someone there to support them.
Another example of the depth of Cantor Kutner’s faith: When he was in the camps, during the first selection process, people were separated into two lines. He could easily have switched from the left line to the right line or vice versa, but Cantor Kutner decided to stay in the line that he was sorted into because “this is where G-d put me. This is where I’m staying.”
Cantor Kutner is an amazing man with an incredible story. He highlights the importance of listening to and ensuring that Holocaust survivors’ stories are remembered. His positive mindset and adoration for the State of Israel are astounding and incredibly inspiring to me, especially as a teen.
Meeting anyone in person, but especially a Holocaust survivor, is so different from reading about them or hearing their story from a relative or someone who is familiar with it. Seeing them in the flesh is an entirely different experience, and I think that especially applies to meeting Cantor Kutner.
It is mind blowing to think that Cantor Kutner was almost exactly my age when the Holocaust started and only a little older when it ended. He came to America, to Denver, with nothing, knowing no one, but with the help of others, including Rabbi Manuel Laderman, he set about on a new life.
However, he continued the davening tradition of his father, being a chazzan first at the Ostrover shul and later at BMH. Cantor Kutner’s passion for music has inspired me to try to get better at piano as well. His discipline and determination when moving to America can be applied to how I look at the instrument and will help me grow my musical abilities.
Sitting across from Cantor Kutner was an almost overwhelming experience. I could not believe that I was looking at someone who had been through hell and back yet had come out and built himself a successful life in a new place. He came to America knowing very little English, yet he adapted and built for himself and his family a life. He is the definition of hard work yet is still extremely humble.
Cantor Kutner has taught me that one can get through the darkest of times. At times it can feel like the world is falling apart in front of our very eyes. It is difficult, as a teen, to escape the endless images of natural disasters, war, terrorist attacks and other terrible things. However, Cantor Kutner actually saw his world fall apart in front of him but he persevered and built himself a life in America.
His story has taught me that there is always a way through the dark and, though it may not be easy, it is possible.
© IJN 2023
