Rabbi Shlomo Pared (1937–2003), whose family was close to the Gustman family starting in 1948, shared some of his experiences in a letter written in the summer of 1999 to his family and friends:
"I was told that the Rabbi waters the flowers in front of the Yeshiva building every single day. When asked why he was wasting his work time on such an action, he replied that flowers and other plants saved his life during the war, and this is his way of repaying them for their kindness and goodness. He told me that Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, his mentor and advisor who was the Chief Rabbi of Vilna (a center of wisdom and scholarship before the war), took him for long walks in the forests around Vilna, and during them showed him which plants were edible and which were poisonous. He also told me that when the rabbis of Vilna gathered around Rabbi Grodzinski as he lay on his deathbed in the late 1930s, he turned to him [R' Gustman] and said: 'Gustman, you will survive everything.' When Rabbi Gustman replied, 'Rebbe, you too will survive everything,' Rabbi Grodzinski answered: 'No, I will die and you will live.' And so it was—Rabbi Grodzinski and all the other rabbis of Vilna perished, and Rabbi Gustman was the only one who remained alive."
A student in Rabbi Gustman's yeshiva in Israel, Shlomo Oratz, told Rabbi Pared that on Israel's Independence Days, Rabbi Gustman used to go out to the street to watch the military parade. When asked by his students why he was wasting Torah study time on mundane matters, he replied: "When I was in Europe during the war, I saw many Jewish children murdered without the ability to defend themselves. I want to have the merit of seeing Jewish soldiers with weapons in their hands."
Rabbi Pared and Rabbi Gustman were walking together on Shabbat morning and saw the Rabbi's landlord standing at the entrance to his house smoking a cigar. When he saw the Rabbi, he immediately moved the cigar behind his back. Upon entering the house, the Rabbi said to me: "You see, Shlomo, this man is not a public desecrator of Shabbat." I said, "How can that be? I saw him smoking a cigar myself!" The Rabbi replied: "Yes, but he hid the cigar behind his back, which proves that he still understands the nature and significance of Shabbat and is ashamed of his actions."
