Rose Girone, Oldest Holocaust Survivor, Dies at 113

Rose Girone was eight months pregnant and living in Breslau, Germany, in 1938 when her husband was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. She secured passage to Shanghai, only to be forced to live in a bathroom in a Jewish ghetto for seven years. Once settled in the United States, she rented whatever she could find while supporting her daughter with knitting.

Despite the hardships, including two pandemics, Ms. Girone embraced life with urgent positivity and common sense. “Aren’t we lucky?” she would often say.

Ms. Girone was believed to be the oldest survivor of the Holocaust. She died at a nursing home on Long Island on Monday, her daughter and fellow survivor, Reha Bennicasa, said. She was 113.

Her secret to longevity was simple, she would say: dark chocolate and good children.

There are about 245,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors alive around the world, according to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which supports survivors.

“This passing reminds us of the urgency of sharing the lessons of the Holocaust while we still have firsthand witnesses with us,” said Greg Schneider, the organization’s executive vice president. “The Holocaust is slipping from memory to history, and its lessons are too important, especially in today’s world, to be forgotten.”

“Rose was an example of fortitude, but now we are obligated to carry on in her memory,” he said.