Seeking to ensure their parents’ harrowing survival story and subsequent triumphs are never erased from history, the Roth family has established a permanent academic legacy at Stockton University.
The family has committed $25,000 to the Stockton University Foundation to launch the Sam and Elizabeth Roth Endowed Memorial Scholarship in Holocaust Studies. The newly formed endowment will fund an annual undergraduate scholarship for students demonstrating a dedicated academic interest in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
The scholarship honors Samuel and Elizabeth Roth, both of whom survived the absolute zenith of Nazi atrocities during World War II before immigrating to southern New Jersey to build a prominent local business footprint.
In 1944, both Samuel and Elizabeth were forced into the Munkács ghetto in Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine) before being deported to Auschwitz. From there, their paths diverged into separate horrors:
- Samuel Roth endured brutal forced labor at the Gusen II concentration camp. Upon his liberation in 1945, he discovered that only he and his brother Martin had survived out of their entire family.
- Elizabeth Roth was transferred from Auschwitz to the Stutthof concentration camp, forced to labor in a munitions factory, and survived a brutal winter death march before being liberated by the Soviet Red Army. Her parents and four of her siblings were murdered.
The couple met and married in Europe after the war, arriving in the United States in 1949. Settling in Millville, they began working on a local poultry farm before eventually founding Tower Hospitality—a highly successful commercial enterprise that today owns and operates three major hotels in Cumberland County.
In her later years, Elizabeth Roth became a fierce advocate for regional history education, frequently speaking to K-12 classrooms and college students through Stockton’s Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center (HRC). In 2024, the HRC permanently codified her testimony by publishing From Munkács to Millville: The Story of Holocaust Survivor Elizabeth Roth.
“Our parents’ biggest concern in life was that what they went through—being taken from their homes, losing their parents and siblings in a murderous way—should always be remembered,” their son, Ed Roth, who celebrated the endowment signing alongside his brothers, Carl and Henry, said.
University administrators emphasized that the gift acts as both a historical preservation tool and a critical financial lifeline for students who might otherwise struggle to afford tuition.
“These scholarships are the difference between someone staying at Stockton and graduating, or not,” HRC Director Irvin Moreno-Rodriguez, said. He noted that he was a scholarship recipient himself during his undergraduate years at the university. “What I tell everyone is that we are planting seeds to a forest that we may never see.”
Stockton President Joe Bertolino praised the family’s civic contribution, noting that it aligns with the university’s overarching goal of building a robust “culture of opportunity” in South Jersey by allowing the lessons of the past to directly fund the leaders of the future.
