Herman Roth and Alvin Roth's uncle-nephew relationship

Herman Roth and Alvin Roth's uncle-nephew relationship is both a long guardianship and a contest over what care requires. After Alvin was orphaned, Herman took him into his home, worked to keep him out of trouble, and tried to offer him a stable future. But when Alvin rejected the opportunities Herman arranged and left to fight Hitler, their competing convictions turned that care into a bitter family conflict.

Guardianship and Early Support

Alvin’s father, Herman’s older brother, died when Alvin was six; Alvin’s mother died when he was thirteen. He then came to live with the Roth family during the four years he attended Weequahic High School. Herman was not simply a relative offering shelter: he was dedicated to setting his quick-witted nephew on a different course. After Alvin was caught stealing from the Esso station where he worked after school, Herman persuaded the owner to drop the charges and repaid the money himself, helping avert the prospect of Alvin’s being sent to the Rahway reformatory.

As Alvin grew older, Herman continued to make room for him in family life. Alvin came to the house several times a week for meals, partly so Herman could keep track of him and partly so Bess Roth could ensure he was eating properly. Their dinners became occasions for heated conversation rather than the stern lectures Herman had once given him. Herman had encouraged Alvin to read the newspaper and follow public affairs, and their political arguments became one way the uncle tried to guide the nephew he had helped raise.

Work, Education, and a Moral Divide

At twenty-one, Alvin had a furnished room above a Wright Street shoeshine parlor and worked as a driver for Abe Steinheim, a prominent Newark builder. Herman saw Steinheim as a demanding but valuable model: he urged Alvin to learn from a man who had built a major business and whose example, Herman believed, might inspire his nephew. Alvin instead condemned Steinheim’s treatment of workers and family members. Their different judgments of the employer sharpened a larger disagreement about whether a future built through Steinheim’s patronage was worth its cost.

Herman pressed the practical case for staying. When Steinheim offered to send Alvin to Rutgers University on a full scholarship, with the prospect of returning to the business after college, Herman treated the offer as an opportunity Alvin should not throw away. Alvin saw dependence on Steinheim as a debt that would compromise him. He also argued that working for a man who exploited labor was inconsistent with Herman’s disapproval of theft. Herman distinguished between stealing and the customary practices of a cutthroat building trade; Alvin refused that distinction and accused his uncle of excusing exploitation when it served a respectable career.

Their disagreement became inseparable from the question of the war. Herman urged Alvin to accept the education and future being offered instead of leaving to fight Hitler. Alvin answered that Hitler was the worst human being and that he would rather fight him than remain in Steinheim’s employ. He also called Herman an isolationist, grouping him with Lionel Bengelsdorf and Steinheim as men he regarded as false representatives of Jewish interests. Herman, who had brought Alvin into his home and worked to secure his prospects, heard the accusation as a rejection not only of his politics but of his judgment about how to care for the boy.

Departure and Return

The argument continued over four consecutive nights. On the fifth, Alvin did not come to dinner. The next morning the family learned that, after receiving his Friday pay, he had thrown the Cadillac keys at Steinheim and left. Herman hurried to Alvin’s rented room, hoping to find out what had happened and how much damage had been done to his chances. The landlord told him Alvin had paid his rent, packed his belongings, and gone to fight. Alvin had taken the express train from Newark Penn Station to Montreal and joined the Canadian war effort, refusing the college path Herman had tried to secure for him.

Alvin’s departure did not end Herman’s practical care. After Alvin left for the Canadian army, Herman retrieved his belongings from the Wright Street room. When Alvin later returned home disabled and ashamed of his changed condition, the family prepared space for him in their bedroom so that he would have easier access to the bathroom. Bess washed and restored his clothes, while Philip helped put them away and get the room ready. These preparations show the household reorganizing itself around Alvin’s needs, even though the evidence does not present them as resolving the earlier conflict between uncle and nephew.

Conflict and the Limits of Care

By the time of the later crisis, their relationship had also become physically dangerous: Alvin had assaulted Herman the week before, and Herman’s response left the living room wrecked. The episode stands in sharp contrast to the long history of meals, protection, and efforts to create a future for Alvin. It shows that kinship did not shield the Roth family from the pressures surrounding them; political fear and family anger had entered the home itself.

The relationship’s central tension is that Herman’s care takes the form of intervention—finding Alvin work, arguing for his education, and trying to keep him close—while Alvin insists on judging those offers by the obligations and compromises they entail. Herman regards stability and opportunity as forms of rescue; Alvin chooses a riskier course because he believes it answers a more urgent moral demand. His return makes renewed dependence possible, but the account leaves the uncle-nephew relationship marked by both sustained care and unresolved conflict.