Roth family papers

Anna Roth (later Anne Wolfe) was born on June 22, 1936 in Kraków, Poland to Yecheskel (Chaskiel) and Rywa (later Regina, née Kleinberg) Roth. Chaskiel’s parents moved to New York at the turn of the century but returned to Poland with their family a few years later. Chaskiel (who sometimes went by the surname Gastwirth) and Rywa married in 1930 and had two daughters: Mina (born June 24, 1931 in Krakow), and Anna. The family lived in Bochnia with Chaskiel’s mother, Chaya Roth, and his younger brother. In 1941, they went into the Bochnia ghetto, where they remained for over a year. When the ghetto was being liquidated in 1942, the family hid in a second attic that Chaskiel had secretly built; Chaya and Chaskei's younger brother were captured and shot. The family hid from later round-ups in the attic of non-Jewish friends; the entrance was hidden behind a linen closet. After hearing rumors that the Germans were seeking foreign nationals to exchange for German civilians in Allied countries, the family decided to register with the Gestapo, claiming that Chaskiel had been born in the United States. Based on this registration, they were sent to civilian internment camps in western Europe in January 1943. Rywa, Mina, and Anna were sent to Liebenau and then to Vittel, while Chaskiel was sent to Tittmoning before reuniting with his family in Vittel. In Vittel, the girls attended school, participated in cultural activities and Chaskiel--himself a published Yiddish author--befriended the famous Yiddish poet, Yitzchak Katzenelson. After about a year, the family were taken from Vittel to Lisbon where they boarded the Gripsholm, a Swedish repatriation ship. In February 1944, they arrived in New York but were denied official entry into the United States and were sent to Ellis Island. There they remained for several weeks, but immigration authorities could find no proof of Chaskiel's American birth. They were paroled into the country while investigations continued. Chaskiel began writing for "The Forward" about the situation of Jews in Poland; in 1947, he self-published these articles into a book entitled “Ich Hob Gelebt oyn Polin.” Immigration authorities never found proof that Chaskiel had been born in the United States, and the family was never able to provide adequate proof. After the war, the family had to repay their passage on the Gripsholm and were threatened with deportation for several years.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Anne Wolfe

Anne Wolfe donated her family's collection to the United States in 2015.