Rose Girone, believed to be world’s oldest Holocaust survivor, dies at 113

Rose Girone, believed to be the world’s oldest survivor of the Holocaust, died on Feb. 24, her daughter said. She was 113.

Reha Bennicasa told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that her mother, a longtime resident of Queens, New York, died of old age. Girone ran a knitting shop in the Forest Hills neighborhood of the New York City borough, People reported.

Girone was born in Janov, Poland, on Jan. 13, 1912, WNYW reported. The Claims Conference stated that she was the oldest survivor of the Holocaust.

Born Rose Raubvogel, her family settled in Hamburg, Germany, and ran a theatrical costume shop, People reported.

She was married to Julius Mannheim in an arranged wedding in 1938, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. The following year they moved to Breslau, Germany (Now Wroclaw, Poland), and Mannheim was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration. Girone, who was eight months pregnant at the time, fled the city to stay out of harm’s way.

Girone was able to secure visas for herself and her husband and they escaped to Shanghai, China, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Girone, eight months pregnant at the time, was able to secure visas for her and her husband to escape to Shanghai, China.

Shanghai was one of the last open ports in the world; Girone presented the visa to the Nazi authorities and was able to get her husband released, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

“They let my father out with the proviso that we pay them and get out of the country within six weeks, and so we did,” Bennicasa, 86, told New York Jewish Week in 2022.

In China, Girone began knitting for a living, the Post reported. The money she earned from selling her creations to an upscale Shanghai store enabled her to earn income for her family, The Times of Israel reported.

The family was granted a visa to the United States in 1947, and while each person was only allowed to leave China with $10, Girone managed to hide $80 inside the buttons of her hand-knitted sweaters, the newspaper reported.

Girone opened Rose’s Knitting Studio in 1953, News12 Long Island reported.

Girone divorced her first husband and married her second husband, Jack Girone, in 1968, the Long Island Herald reported.

“She went on her first date with my grandfather, Jack Girone, on the day I was born,” Girone’s granddaughter, Gina Bennicasa, told the newspaper. “He lived till he was 76, but they had this beautiful life together.”

Girone sold her business in 1980 when she was 68, but knitting remained a lifelong passion, according to The Jewish Chronicle. She continued to knit and did volunteer work until she was nearly 102, WNYW reported.

She was moved to a rehabilitation center when she was 109, according to People.

In January, Girone told the Herald that her secret to a long life was to “Live every day with a purpose, have amazing children, and eat lots of dark chocolate.”

According to Israel’s Government Press Office, Girone was “always particularly outspoken about her experiences before and during the war,” the Post reported.

“She was a strong lady, resilient. She made the best of terrible situations,” Reha Bennicasa told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “She was very level-headed, very commonsensical. There was nothing I couldn’t bring to her to help me solve -- ever -- from childhood on.

“She was just a terrific lady… and I don’t know, when God made her, they broke (the) mold.”

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