On January 19, 2019, Walter Roth passed away in Chicago at the age of 89. The Arbeitskreis Landsynagoge Roth mourns the loss of a friend who accompanied its work with great interest, promoted it and was a good friend to it. With Walter Roth, the last Jewish contemporary witness who was born in Roth has passed away. Walter Roth was born on April 18, 1929, the youngest of three siblings. He was born into an old-established, well-off Jewish family. In 1934, at the tender age of barely five, he already lost his mother Selma to an infection. Soon after, his father found it increasingly difficult to support his family, because as a seed and fertilizer dealer who depended on business with farmers, he was massively persecuted as early as 1935. So he recognized the signs of the times early on, obtained a guarantee from relatives in the U.S. and was able to escape Nazi Germany in 1938 with his second wife Toni and their three children. The family began a new life in Chicago. Here, the former businessman Markus Roth supported his family laboriously as a wage laborer in a slaughterhouse. Over this life hovered the fear for the family members left behind in Germany, all of whom did not survive the Holocaust. The younger generation found it easier to gain a foothold in this country; Walter seized the opportunity to study and became a successful lawyer.