Michael V. Roth photographs

Michael Roth (born Miklos) was born on March 29, 1931 in Ricse, Hungary to Menyhert Roth and Regina Roth (née Weinberger). Michael had three siblings: Sandor, Tibor, and Imre Roth. Their father, Menyhert worked as a sexton in Ricse. In March 1944, the family was taken to the Sátoraljaújhely ghetto in Hungary. In April 1944, the family was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. Regina and her two youngest sons, Tibor and Imre, perished upon arrival at the camp. Michael and his father were held at Auschwitz for a brief period before being sent to Kittlitztreben (now Trzebień), a satellite camp of the Gross Rosen concentration camp. In February 1945, they were forced to march to the Buchenwald concentration camp and then to the Flossenbürg concentration camp. On April 7, 1945, Menyhert was shot and killed after falling during the forced march. Of the 1,500 prisoners who began the death march, Michael Roth was one of only 170 prisoners who survived the march and arrived at the Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 17, 1945. On week later, on April 23, 1945, the camp was liberated by the 358th and 359th United States Infantry Regiments of the 90th United States Infantry Division. Michael was 14 years old at liberation, and ill. He was treated at United States army hospital for ten months. Upon his recovery, he was then sent to the Kloster Indersdorf children’s home, where he stayed from August 1945 until May 1946. In May 1946, Michael immigrated to the United States and lived with an aunt in the Bronx, New York. Michael eventually graduated high school and college and served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. Michael Roth died in 2011. Of Michael’s immediate family, only his older brother Sandor Roth, who had traveled to Palestine, survived the war.