‘Never Again' - One Holocaust survivor's work to educate

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - Irving Roth now spends most of his time telling his personal story about the horrors of the Holocaust.

“I lived in this wonderful bubble and then suddenly there are restrictions,” Roth said.

Born in the former Czechoslovakia, Roth was only 14 when he and his family were taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. 

“Knowing full well, hours after the selection took place, my grandfather and grandmother were going one way, and I was going the other way with my brother. Finding out that they were murdered. I loved my grandfather. It’s tough,” Roth said.

Whether it was down to perseverance, providence or pure luck, Roth survived a death march and worked with horses at Auschwitz until it was liberated in April 1945, when he was 15.

Now, just short of his 90th birthday, the Holocaust educator says he still has a lot to be grateful for. 

“As long as one can physically get up in the morning and think and talk and interact with people, it’s great,” Roth said.

Over the last 25 years, Roth has shared his story with hundreds of thousands of people and as he approaches his milestone birthday, his biggest desire to prevent history from repeating itself.

“We have people on both the extremes saying the most outrageous things in the world. It makes no sense at all,” Roth said. “By me speaking to them, by them listening to someone who actually experienced it, who was there, who was an eyewitness… extremely important.”