Rose Girone, the oldest Holocaust survivor, celebrated 113th birthday
The Gerontology Research Group is pleased to announce news that Mrs. Rose Girone, the oldest living person in New York, and the oldest living Holocaust survivor, celebrated her 113th birthday in Bellmore, Nassau County, New York, United States, on 13 January 2025.
Rose Girone was born as Rose Raubvogel on 13 January 1912.
In 1938, she married her first husband, Julius Mannheim, in an arranged marriage. Later that year, they moved to Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) just as Kristallnacht started violence against Germany’s Jews. Julius got arrested, and Girone briefly fled the city with her mother. In 1939, she fled Germany to Shanghai, China. Conditions in Shanghai were difficult for her. Later that year, she was able to knit clothes for her child. Later, a Jewish entrepreneur saw what she made and they both made money. In 1941, Japan forced the Jews in Shanghai to move into a ghetto. In 1947, she and her family got a visa to the United States. Rose and Julius Mannheim divorced in 1948 due to his lack of motivation to find employment. She moved to Florida with her daughter and worked at The Sagamore, a luxury hotel and resort.
In 1968, she married Jack Girone, and they moved to Whitestone, Queens, New York. She opened her own knitting business in nearby Rego Park and later opened a second location in Forest Hills. She and her business partner later went their separate ways and ran a store each.
In 1980, at the age of 68, Girone sold her business and began knitting for a non-profit organisation in Great Neck, Long Island. She was widowed after Jack Girone died in 1989. She was employed by Dina Mor, a customer and later friend of hers until her retirement in 2014 at the age of 102.
On 13 January 2022, Girone celebrated her 110th birthday, becoming a supercentenarian.
On 17 July 2023, following the death of 112-year-old Louise Levy, Girone became the oldest living person in the U.S. state of New York.
Long Island Holocaust survivor celebrates 113th birthday on 1/13
