Rose Girone, the oldest living Holocaust survivor and a powerful advocate for sharing the stories of survivors, died. She was 113 years old.
She passed away on Monday in New York Claims meetingNew York-based conference on the claims of Jewish material against Germany.
“She was just a great woman,” her daughter, Reha Benikassa, said on Friday by phone. “There was nothing too difficult. She wasn't afraid. She was an adventurous person. She did well.”
Girone was born on January 13, 1912 in Jannou, Poland. Her family moved to Hamburg, Germany at the age of six, and said in a 1996 filmed interview with the USC Shoah Foundation.
When asked by the interviewer if Adolf Hitler had a particular career plan, she said he “comes in 1933 and it ended for everyone.”
According to a survey released at the billing meeting last year, Girone was one of roughly 245,000 survivors still living in more than 90 countries. Their numbers are falling short of time. Most are very old and often frail, with a median age of 86.
“Rose was a flashy example, but now I have an obligation to continue in her memory,” Greg Schneider, vice president of the conference, said in a statement Thursday. “The lessons of the Holocaust should not die with those who have endured their suffering.”
Six million European Jews and other minorities were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.
“This passing reminds us of the urgency of sharing Holocaust lessons, but we still have direct witnesses with us,” Schneider said. “The Holocaust slides from memory to history, and its lessons are unforgettable, especially in today's world.”
Girone married Julius Mannheim through an arranged marriage in 1937.
She was nine months pregnant, living in Breslau, now Wroclaw, Poland, when the Nazis arrived to take Mannheim to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Their family had two cars so she asked her husband to leave his keys.
She said she remembered what the Nazis said: “Take that woman too.”
The other Nazis replied: “She's pregnant and leave her alone.”
The next morning, her stepfather was also taken, and she was left alone with their housekeeper.
After her daughter, Reha, was born in 1938, Girone was able to secure a Chinese visa from her London relative and secure her husband's release.
In Genoa, Italy, when Reha was only six months old, they boarded a boat into Shanghai, under Japanese occupation, which was nothing more than clothing and linen.
Her husband first made money by buying and selling second-hand items. He rescued him to buy a car and started a taxi business.
However, in 1941, Jewish refugees were rounded up to the ghetto. The family of three was stuffed into the bathroom inside the house, with cockroaches and bed bugs raw to their belongings.
Her stepfather came just before World War II began, but she became ill and died. They had to wait in line for food, and lived under the rule of ruthless Japanese who called themselves the “king of the Jews.”
“They did something really scary to people,” Girone said of the Japanese truck that patrolled the streets. “One of our friends was killed because he didn't move fast enough.”
Information about the war in Europe was only circulated in the form of rumors, as British radio was not permitted.
When the war ended, they began receiving mail from Girone's mother, grandmother, and other relatives in the United States. With their help, they boarded a boat to San Francisco in 1947 for just $80.
They arrived in New York City in 1947. She later began knitting with the help of her mother.
“Her theory always “don't sweat on small things,” and “everything that can be fixed with money doesn't matter,” her daughter said. “She had a big head on her shoulder.”
Also in New York, Girone met his younger brother again. She went to France for school and ended up obtaining US citizenship by joining the Army. When she went to the airport to pick him up in New York, it was her that she met him for the first time in 17 years.
Girone later divorced Mannheim. In 1968, she met Jacques Girone the same day her granddaughter was born. By the following year they were married. He passed away in 1990.
When she asked for a message she wanted to leave with her daughter and granddaughter in 1996, she said: Whatever that is. ”
