Rose Girone, believed to be the oldest known Holocaust survivor in the world, died this week at age 113, according to the nonprofit Claims Conference.
Girone died on Monday at a nursing home in Bellmore, New York, CNN reported.
Girone was born on Jan. 13, 1912, in Janow, Poland, and moved to Hamburg, Germany, when she was 6. Married in 1937, she was nine months pregnant when her husband was arrested and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp.
In 1996, Girone was asked in an interview with the USC Shoah Foundation if she had any career plans before Adolf Hitler rose to power.
"Hitler came in 1933, and then it was over for everybody," she responded.
"She was a strong lady, resilient. She made the best of terrible situations," her daughter, Reha Bennicasa, said in a statement.
Bennicasa, who is also a Holocaust survivor, added, "She was very level-headed, very commonsensical. There was nothing I couldn't bring to her to help me solve — ever — from childhood on."
Greg Schneider, executive vice president of Claims Conference, which works to secure money for survivors, said in a statement, "Rose was an example of fortitude but now we are obligated to carry on in her memory. The lessons of the Holocaust must not die with those who endured the suffering.
"This passing reminds us of the urgency of sharing the lessons of the Holocaust while we still have first-hand witnesses with us. The Holocaust is slipping from memory to history, and its lessons are too important, especially in today's world, to be forgotten."
According to Claims Conference, there are roughly 245,000 Holocaust survivors still alive in more than 90 countries, 14,000 of whom live in New York. With average age of 86, the numbers are rapidly shrinking.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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