Rose Girone
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New Yorker Rose Girone, who celebrated her 113th birthday on Jan. 13 and was believed to be the oldest living Holocaust survivor, died on Monday morning.
The cause, according to her daughter, Reha Bennicasa, was old age.
Girone — who ran a knitting shop in Forest Hills, Queens and credits the craft as helping to save her family during the Holocaust — was, by all accounts, a remarkable person, and was well-loved in New York’s knitting community. Girone was also outspoken about her experiences during the war; she provided testimonies to The USC Shoah Foundation, the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County and others.
“Everything that’s out there is really who my mother was,” Bennicasa said, referring to the press coverage her mother received in recent years. “She was a strong lady, resilient. She made the best of terrible situations. 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 mold.”
