GRG Statement on Rose Girone’s (113) Actual Birthplace in modern Ukraine

The Gerontology Research Group, a partner institute of Guinness World Records, is compelled to make a statement regarding the actual place of birth of Mrs. Rose Girone of New York, USA, 113, the world’s oldest living Holocaust survivor. After extensive biographical research, with invaluable assistance from her closest family, the GRG has established her exact birthplace. It has been determined that Rose Girone was actually born in Janów, Austria-Hungary (present-day Ivano-Frankove, Yavoriv Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine).

Many articles about Rose Girone have loosely reported her birthplace as “Janów, Poland.” While Janów was indeed briefly part of the Second Republic of Poland during the interwar period – de facto until the fall of Poland during World War II in 1939, and de jure until 1945, when it was incorporated into the Soviet Union – it was originally part of Austria-Hungary at the time of her birth. From 1940 to 1941 and again from 1944 to 1962, Janów served as the seat of the Janów district. In 1946, the town and its district were renamed from Janów to Ivano-Frankove. Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Ivano-Frankove became part of independent Ukraine.

During the German occupation, a Polish resident of Janów, Jadwiga Szwarc, née Hecht, provided help to a Jewish woman, Regina Farb, for which the Yad Vashem Institute honored her with the title of Righteous Among the Nations in 1989.

Dr. Wacław Jan Kroczek, President of the GRG Management Board