Millions of Souls, the Philip Riteman Story

The sadness in his eyes pooled and glistened, welling up from his very soul, as he rolled up his shirtsleeve to reveal to me his tattoo. Philip Riteman had been Prisoner Number 98706.

I met Philip in the 1980’s – he was the owner of an import trading company out of Nova Scotia. Over the months and years that he called on our retail flooring store, his story gradually unfolded. From this gentle, kind, and soft-spoken man, the tears fell with each telling.

In 1941 the Riteman family was uprooted by the Nazis from their home in Poland, along with the rest of the Jews and many Christians. Within a week of arriving in Auschwitz, Philip’s grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters were all dead. In all, he lost 30 family members by the end of the war.

Philip was only 14 when his odyssey of horror began. The journey took him through five concentration camps. The prisoners were subjected to starvation and tortured randomly for the amusement of their sadistic captors. He witnessed what the mind cannot comprehend.

Liberated in 1945, the 17 year-old weighed just 75 pounds.

In 1946 he was brought to Newfoundland by his mother’s sister. With nothing but courage and determination and speaking no English, he became a door-to-door pedlar. Through the kindness of the people he rose to become a successful businessman.

Philip had recovered, but he was not free.

The darkness that encased his spirit and his mind gave him no rest. The voices continued to cry out in agony. The bloody images were indelibly etched upon his sight.

He remained silent for 40 years...until it became unbearable to do so.

Thus began his journey to finally speak for the millions and millions of souls whose cries haunted his days and nights.

In his eighties now, he is still speaking to hundreds of students each year.

His book, Millions of Souls: the Philip Riteman Story, as told to Mireille Baulu-MacWillie, was released in 2010. In his book, Philip says:

“When I go speaking in schools I feel like I am crying in the wilderness, I am crying to God, I am crying to young people so that they can be aware of the dangers of evil thinking and malicious intentions.”

Philip Riteman has been recognized for reliving the unimaginable. Among the many accolades are honourary degrees from Memorial and St. Thomas universities. In 2009, he received the Order of Nova Scotia.

Philip’s message to students is clear: “to think for themselves, to respect others, to love rather than hate, and to stand up against all evil.”