By Rose Girone, the woman believed to be the oldest known Holocaust survivor, has died, her family and a Jewish organization that secures compensation for Holocaust survivors said Thursday.
She died on Monday, the nonprofit Claims Conference said in a social media post announcing her death. CNN reported that she died at a nursing home in Bellmore, New York.
When her husband was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp, Girone was eight months pregnant, Claims Conference said.
Rose Girone and her daughter, Reha Bennicasa.Courtesy of Reha Bennicasa
After her husband’s release, the family fled Breslau, Germany, to Shanghai, the organization said.
“She was a strong lady, resilient. She made the best of terrible situations,” her daughter, Reha Bennicasa, said in a statement.
“She was very level-headed, very commonsensical. There was nothing I couldn’t bring to her to help me solve — ever — from childhood on,” said Bennicasa, who is also a Holocaust survivor.
About 245,000 Holocaust survivors are still alive and about 14,000 of those live in New York, according to the Claims Conference.
