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Auschwitz survivor: "The moment you give up, you will die"

Irving Roth, 85, founded the Holocaust Resource Center in Manhasset, New York, to help ensure the world never forgets the atrocities of the Holocaust
Auschwitz survivor remembers the Holocaust 01:22

Ceremonies are being held this week to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Adolf Hitler's most notorious concentration camp. Nazis systematically murdered more than a million people, mostly Jews, at Auschwitz during the Holocaust.

Irving Roth, 85, is one of the survivors. Like every prisoner there, Roth was tattooed with an identification number: A10491. It's still a physical reminder of a painful past.

When Roth was 14, he and his family were transported in cattle cars from their home in Slovakia to Auschwitz in southern Poland. They stepped off the train and immediately Roth and his brother Bondi were sent on one line; his grandparents and cousins another. Roth didn't know it at the time, but everyone on the other line was sent straight to the gas chamber. Roth survived months as a prisoner in Auschwitz.

"One of the requirements of survival was not giving up," Roth said. "The moment you give up, you will die."

He says he will never forget the moment of liberation. He saw two soldiers and instantly realized what was happening.

"Nobody wants to kill me anymore. Wow, I'm going to live. I'm going to reach my 16th birthday," he said. "It was an unbelievable transformation."

In 1947, Roth and his surviving family moved to the United States. He became an engineer, married and had two children. Later in life he founded the Holocaust Resource Center in Manhasset, New York. Like many Holocaust survivors, Roth believes he should do his part to make sure the world never forgets what happened. Unfortunately, seven decades later, he says hatred still exists.

Roth is particularly alarmed at rising anti-Semitism in Europe, and warns history can repeat itself.

"I want to reach people and tell them how this came to be, how if they are not careful a similar thing can happen. And not necessarily to the Jews. It's just taking simple hatred and pushing it to the limit," he said.

This week, world leaders and survivors will mark the bittersweet anniversary. In another decade, as the population of survivors continues to fade, there will be fewer people who actually bore witness to the heinous crimes. Roth will continue to tell his story as a survivor.

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