Saved by Psalms ― The Story of Irving Roth

Like many Jewish children, young Irving Roth did not understand what was going on in Germany. But in September 1938, everything changed for Jewish families. Hitler’s Nazis now occupied his region of Czechoslovakia, and his simple, happy childhood was over.Antisemitism spread quickly. New restrictive curfews were put in place for the Jews. They were no longer allowed to go out at night. If you were caught after dark, you were beaten and hauled to jail. Irving heard stories about Jews being forced to give up fur clothing. Irving owned a sheepskin jacket which he had to turn in at the police department. Laws were enacted forbidding Jewish children from going to school and preventing Jews from owning a business. On his birthday in 1940, Irving was excited to go to his first day of sixth grade. On his way to school, he saw a sign in front of the park which said, “Jews and dogs are forbidden to enter.” As he came closer to school, he saw the principal of the school standing outside with a group of children around him. All the children had yellow stars on their shirts. The principal said: “You cannot go to this school because you are Jewish.” Later that day, Irving wanted to play soccer with his friends, but he was confronted by his teammates who refused to let him play on their team. This nine year old birthday boy was told he could not play his favorite sport because he was a Jew. It was hard to believe that life could change so quickly. Jews were put into cattle cars and shipped somewhere,” Roth said. “This time, my luck was no longer with me. My brother and I, along with our grandparents and an aunt, were packed inside this box, with no bathroom and no windows. Imagine ninety people with insufficient space to sit—even on the floor and a bucket in the middle of the car for waste.” They reached their destination. Irving can still recall the image of black smoke, dogs, and Nazi soldiers who screamed at them to move quickly. They had arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp. At the time, nobody knew that the shower was actually a gas chamber. Young Irving and his brother were soon put to work. Their names were replaced by numbers, they slept on bunks that looked like shelves, and they worked for days with little or nothing to eat. All of this horror lasted until 1945. “On January 18, 1945 the Jewish prisoners got up, got dressed, and prepared to go to work, and marched up to the gate. They realized the guards were not marching to work; they were marching back to Buchenwald, away from the Russian Army,” This long walk would become known as a death march. It was clear to Irving and his brother, “You march or you die.” The march seemed to last forever, and they could not go a couple of feet without seeing a dead body. Irving’s brother Andre encouraged him, asking him to recite the Psalms of the Bible to take his mind off his hunger and weariness. After three days and nights of marching, they arrived at Buchenwald. The conditions there were even worse than Auschwitz. The Jews sometimes went days without eating. “One evening, when they were counting us, Andre was taken away,” Irving said. He never saw his brother again. On April 11, 1945, the camp was finally liberated. Irving had survived. “Two American soldiers – veteran, hardened soldiers – walked into this place and saw hundreds of emaciated children. They broke down, took any food they had in their pockets and gave it to the people that were standing around. They realized they needed to do something to feed these people; they had never seen skeletons shuffling around,” Roth said. Irving’s experience in the concentration camp was finally over. He survived by being resourceful only through his sheer will to live another day. Even toward the end, when he did not feel like he would be able to make it, he felt like he had to live just another day and hold onto hope. After the war,Irving returned to his hometown and met his parents.