Edith Kann Roth

ROTH EDITH KANN
74, died of renal failure and sepsis May 1, 2008 in Winter Park, Fla. She had been diagnosed with diabetes in 1984. Edith was born July 28, 1933, in Saarbrucken, then in the Republic of the Saar. She and her family were forced to flee the Nazi uprising and move frequently throughout Vichy France in her childhood They were eventually arrested, however, and sent to Gurs, a notoriously overcrowded, disease-ridden prison camp in southern France, for several months, then freed ironically when Nazis seized the camp and released German nationals, some of whom were Jews. Edith and her sister Renee were then sent to live in Le Chambon sur Lignon, a Huguenot village where families hid as many as 5,000 Jewish children. The heroics of the villagers were later recounted in a book, then a documentary, Weapons of the Spirit, which was an Academy Award nominee in 1990. Edith and other children hidden were guests of honor during the film's premiere at the French embassy in Washington that year. The family then escaped into Switzerland through occupied, guarded territory using forged documents, then emigrated to the United States. Edith was a graduate of Taylor-Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh and Point Park College. Her father, Edmond, died in 1979 and her mother Frieda died in 1984. She married Paul Roth of McKeesport in 1954 and raised four children, moving from Ohio to Michigan, then to suburban Philadelphia. In 1972, the family moved to Potomac, Md. She worked as a medical secretary for NIH, NNMC, the Washington Clinic and Washington Adventist Hospital in Gaithersburg, Md. After her marriage ended in divorce, she moved to Palm Beach Gardens in 1993, then Orlando in 2000. She is survived by her children Daniel Roth and James Roth, both of Atlanta; George Roth (Elizabeth), Mayfield Heights, Ohio, and Miriam Roth-Murphy (Paul); grandchildren Julie Murphy, Longwood, and Olivia Roth, Mayfield Heights. She also leaves a sister, Renee (Art) Kann-Silver of Garden City, NY, and a nephew Marc Silver of Fairfax County, Va. Burial service at Beth Sholom Cemetery, 1501 Anderson Rd, Pittsburgh, Mon. May 12 at 1 pm.
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