This Monday, the world observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time to honor the six million Jewish lives lost and countless others forever changed by the Nazi regime. For those of us in Ithaca, this day is also an opportunity to reflect on the voices of survivors who became part of our community. Among these voices is Rose Bethe’s, whose testimony offers powerful lessons on resilience, the importance of memory, and our responsibility to act against hatred.
Born in Munich in 1917, Rose detailed her family’s efforts to endure post-World War I hardships, including her grandmother’s food gardens. She recounted her teenage years during the rise of Hitler, marked by anti-Semitic discrimination at school, which compelled her to leave Germany for England at 16. In 1936, she immigrated to the United States, attended Smith College and Cornell University, and worked various jobs before meeting Hans Bethe. The couple moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 1943, where Hans was appointed leader of the Theoretical Division for the Manhattan Project. In 1946, they settled in Ithaca, where Hans taught physics at Cornell. Rose’s experiences reflect the dual burden carried by many refugees: the relief of survival alongside the enduring grief of displacement. In Ithaca, Rose became a passionate advocate for education and remembrance, sharing her story to ensure future generations understood the consequences of hate and indifference.
Rose’s testimony is preserved in a collection of eight local Holocaust survivor oral histories assembled by the History Center in Tompkins County. These recordings, made between 2013 and 2018 with members of the Ithaca Jewish community, were transformed into classroom-length productions by students from Ithaca College’s Park Scholars program. Rose’s story, and others like it, provide an invaluable resource for both reflection and education. Though Rose passed away in 2019, her legacy endures through her testimony and its ongoing impact on our community…