Ernest H. Cassutto (1 December 1919 – 18 March 1985) was a Dutch

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivor who converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Holocaust Story

Born in

Probolinggo Probolinggo ( id, Kota Probolinggo, mad, Prabâlingghâ) is a city on the north coast of East Java province, Indonesia. It covers an area of 56.67 sq. km, and had a population of 217,062 at the 2010 census and 239,649 at the 2020 census ...

in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

(Indonesia) he was the middle son of secular

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish parents. His father was a law professor in the Dutch East Indies. The family returned to

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, the Netherlands, in 1934. During the German occupation of the Netherlands, his family was hidden in several locations throughout the country. In 1944, Ernest was captured and imprisoned in Rotterdam and his fiance was sent to a concentration camp and was killed. He was rescued by a Dutch Christian underground worker just before he was to be executed by the Nazis as the war came to a close.

Conversion and Life in America

Ernest later became a minister in the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

, and then immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1952, under the auspices of the Hebrew Christian Alliance and the Reformed Church of America. He settled in the U.S. with his wife and fellow Holocaust survivor, Elisabeth (1931-1984), and infant daughter and was a minister-at-large in the North Jersey-New York metropolitan area. In 1968 he became the pastor of the Emmanuel Hebrew Christian church in Villa Nova, Baltimore County, until his retirement in 1979. He died in the Baltimore area on March 18, 1985.

Writing

Rev. Cassutto wrote a book about his captivity and rescue from Nazi imprisonment in 1974. The book was called ''The Last Jew of Rotterdam'' and was originally released by

Whitaker House Whitaker House is a Christian publishing house in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny C ...

. The book went out of print, but because of continued interest in his story, was rewritten and updated by his son, Dr. Benjamin H. Cassutto. The newer version of the book was released by Purple Pomegranate Productions. Another son, George H. Cassutto, wrote and maintains a website about Rev. and Mrs. Cassutto as the interest in their story continues.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassutto, Ernest 1919 births 1985 deaths American evangelists American people of Dutch-Jewish descent American Presbyterian ministers Converts to Calvinism from Judaism Dutch emigrants to the United States Dutch Sephardi Jews Dutch members of the Dutch Reformed Church American Calvinist and Reformed ministers People from Probolinggo 20th-century American clergy Dutch people of the Dutch East Indies