Inauguration of Herbert Roth Square, July 29, 2016

Welcome! Shalom!

Drohnenaufnahme, © Julian Kriesche

The Arbeitskreis Landsynagoge Roth, a project circle dedicated to preserving the synagogue in the village of Roth near Marburg in Hesse, Germany, welcomes you to our website. We would like to introduce you to our goals and inform you about our projects and activities.

We provide guided tours of the memorial site, the synagogue in Roth, and of the Jewish Cemetery, as well as a variety of cultural activities. Join us in solemn remembrance of the displacement, persecution, and murder of our Jewish neighbors during the Nazi Regime. Perhaps you’ll find our multi-faceted memorial work so interesting that you yourself would like to become a member of our group. You are warmly welcome to join us! Newcomers are always welcome to get involved in our activities and participate in our various projects.

We would also like to introduce you to the history of the Jewish Community that shaped and influenced life in Roth over the centuries before being violently eradicated within less than ten years of Nazi reign. Roth lost an essential part of its cultural heritage. We are trying to preserve what has survived and discover and reconstruct what once was. The physical witnesses of this lost culture: the synagogue, the place of the mikveh, the Jewish cemetery, are here for you to see and experience. Historically, the Jewish communities in Roth and Fronhausen were closely linked. We also include valuable information about Fronhausen’s Jewish past and remaining artifacts on our website.

Yours truly,

The Managing Board of the Arbeitskreis Landsynagoge Roth

Herbert Roth

Naming of a square in honour of Herbert Roth

During the ceremony, at the request of the working group, a square near the synagogue will be named in honour of Herbert Roth.

Herbert Roth was a long-time friend of the working group and a bridge builder. Born in Roth in 1923 to Selma and Markus, he emigrated from Nazi Germany to Chicago in 1938 with his parents and younger siblings Irene and Walter. Herbert Roth returned to Roth for the first time in the early 1950s, later with his wife and growing daughters. From the 1980s onwards, he was a frequent and regular visitor.

In 1984, he and his brother Walter donated a memorial stone for the victims of the Shoa in the Jewish cemetery. He cultivated former school friendships, and soon he also made contact with the later founders of the working group. He followed the restoration of the synagogue with great and constant interest, made valuable documents available to the working group and shared his memories with them.

Herbert Roth also established connections with the families of other Rother survivors and thus became a key figure in the long-standing, friendly relationships that the working group has today with the family of his brother Walter and his sister Helen, the Höchster-Wetmore, Höchster-Solovei and Stern families and their descendants.

The Herbert Roth Square commemorates his exemplary work for understanding and peace.