Philip Gans was born in Amsterdam on January 23, 1928. His family went into hiding and managed to elude the Germans until July 24, 1943, when they were all arrested. Philip’s mother and sister were sent to the gas chambers at Birkenau, Auschwitz II, while Philip, his brother and father were sent to Monowitz-Buna, part of Auschwitz III.
Philip’s 18 months of forced labor caused the loss of his identity as he became number 139755 and endured beatings, intolerable conditions, near starvation, the forced witnessing of executions as mass punishment, transfer to other camps, and the loss of his father and brother.
Philip survived the Death March of April 1945 as the Germans moved prisoners around in response to the Allied advances and was liberated by American soldiers at the age of 17. Philip came to the United States on an immigrant visa in 1950. In 1951, Philip began serving 21 months in the U.S. Army.
Extremely conscious of the importance of the Holocaust and the rate at which the last survivors are dying, and the fact that first-person accounts will soon be a thing of the past, Philip began making Holocaust awareness presentations in 2000 and reached over 100,000 students before his death.
Phil Gans traveled to Sioux City from his home in Florida beginning in 2005 to speak to area students about the Holocaust. He urged students to join his campaign to “erase the hate” and never to be a silent bystander.
Phil has been named an Honorary Alumni of Morningside College and the “Official Holocaust Educator of Siouxland” by the Sioux City Council. In 2013, he received the Tolerance Week Courage to Enlighten Award. Mr. Gans passed away on September 27, 2019 at the age of 91.