Embedded Files
Photo: Interior of renovated synagogue in Roth, Germany, showing the original Hebrew lettering on the walls and fragments of the star-studded ceiling.
Map of Germany highlighting the geography of Roth.
The village of Roth, Germany.
Roth, Germany 1933 - 1942
Roth, Germany 1933 - 1942
In 1933 Roth was a village of only 500 people. Jews had lived there for more than 300 years. The five Jewish families in Roth worked, played, and went to school, side by side with their neighbors.
That changed radically after Hitler came to power in 1933. The lives of these families were systematically dismantled and destroyed.
What occurred in Roth is a microcosm of what happened to Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. By viewing “A Reason to Remember,” visitors learn how Nazi decrees affected the daily lives of Jewish families and develop a better understanding of the step-by-step process that culminated in the Holocaust.
Sign on bike path in Roth, Germany showing locations of the former Jewish community's homes and synagogue.
Deborah Roth-Howe (right), daughter of Herbert Roth, former Jewish resident of Roth, with Annegret Wenz (left), Founder and President of the Arbeitskreis Landsynagoge Roth.
Roth, Germany Today
Roth, Germany Today
In 1996, a group of residents of Roth came together and formed the Arbeitskreis Landsynagoge Roth (working group to protect the rural synagogue in Roth). Their first task was to renovate the dilapidated synagogue, which had been used to store wheat and grain since the night it was vandalized on Kristallnacht. Since that time, and because no Jews have lived in Roth since 1942, the Arbeitskreis has done tremendous work to make the Jewish history of the village visible. They have placed Stopelsteine (stumbling stones) in front of the former Jewish homes. They have erected a sign on the bike path that traverses the village telling the story of the Jews who fled or were deported, and another at the nearby train station from which the Jews still alive in 1941 and 1942 were deported to concentration camps. They care for the Jewish cemetery. Every year they hold numerous commemorative events in the village, noting Holocaust Remembrance Day, the dates of deportations, etc. They bring school children to the synagogue to learn about Judaism and what transpired in this small village under Nazi rule. And they have reached out to the survivors and their descendants and formed healing relationships with us. They are an extraordinary group of Christian residents who have commited themselves to this work for 30 years. And their work and dedication continue.
Great-granddaughter of one of Roth's Jewish survivors studies the support beam in the synagogue where Nazis vandalized the building on the eve of Kristallnacht.
The great-granddaughter of one of Roth's Jewish survivors paints a gold star on the synagogue ceiling.
Stopelsteine (translation: stumbling stones) placed in the ground in front of the former Jewish homes by Roth's current citizens, marking the fates of their former Jewish neighbors. Each stone says: Here lived, the person's name, birth date, either 'fled' or 'deported', followed by the date of their departure from Roth--either by their own volition or by deportation-- and their destination (e.g. South Africa, England or Auschwitz) followed by the word "survived" or "murdered."
Street sign named after a survivor of Roth's former Jewish community, noting that Herbert Roth was a Jewish citizen of Roth, born in 1923, fled to Chicago in 1938 and died in Chicago in 2015.
Children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Roth's Jewish survivors return to Roth in 2026 to honor the 30th anniversary of the Arbeitskreis Landsynagoge Roth.
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