Surviving Holocaust: The Irving Roth Story

Irving Roth was born in 1929 in Kosice, Czechoslovakia and grew up in Humenne, a city of approximately 7,000 people. Irving father, Joseph, owned a lumber business, which produced railroad ties. His mother Helen and his nanny took care of Irving and his brother Andre. In 1935, Irving was entering 1st grade. He enjoyed school but his real love was playing soccer. From 1935 to 1939 life was normal for Irving. In 1939 Germany occupied Western Czechoslovakia and Irving’s life change. Jews had a curfew and Jews were no longer allowed to wear fur garments. Irving owned a sheepskin jacket, which he had to turn over to the police. Jews were also required to wear yellow stars to indicate they were Jews. September 2, 1940 was a significant day for

Irving was not taken that night. There was no hope left in Humenne, so Roth’s family moved to Hungary in 1943 where Jews were still safe. The tide of the war was turning against the Nazis. “Operation Overlord” brought powerful American troops to the shores of Normandy to launch offensives against the exhausted German Wermacht. The Red Army was destroying Hitler’s forces. The Roths believed that the war would soon be over and they would survive. In the spring of 1944 Irving Roth celebrated Passover, the festival of the historical oppression and liberation of the Jews from under the reign of the Pharaohs, hoping that his own deliverance was on the way. In April of 1944 the Hungarian government decided to liquidate the Jewish population of Hungary. Irving became separated from his parents when his father was taken to a hospital in a coma. When Joseph recovered, Jews were no longer safe on the streets. Mrs. Farkash, a Seven-Day Adventist night nurse at the hospital hid Joseph and Helen in her one bedroom apartment where she lived with her daughter and granddaughter. Her son-in-law was a Hungarian Nazi soldier. One day the son-in-law came home for a three-day