Rose Girone, the oldest living person in New York, and the oldest living Holocaust survivor, celebrates her 113th birthday today in Nassau County.
Girone was born Rose Raubvogel in Janów, then part of the Russian Empire, on 13 January 1912. Her family briefly lived in Vienna before relocating to Hamburg, Germany, and setting up a theatrical costume shop. In 1938, she married her first husband, Julius Mannheim, in an arranged marriage. The couple moved to Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) later that year. Mannheim was shortly thereafter arrested during Kristallnacht and held in Buchenwald concentration camp.
With her daughter. (Source: HMTC)
Girone was eight months pregnant with her daughter Reha when she fled the city with her mother and uncle. In 1939, her cousin sent her a Chinese visa, and Girone used it to set her husband free and leave Nazi Germany a few weeks later to start their journey to Shanghai. The month-long voyage to China saw Girone, her family, and all other Jews on board dine separately from non-Jewish passengers. When the family settled in, they had to trade linens and trinkets to find money to live on, eventually having to rely on relief agencies for monetary aid. Mannheim later found a job as a taxi driver, and Girone was talent-spotted by a Viennese-Jewish entrepreneur for her knitting, selling her creations and later started knitting sweaters to help support her family.
In 1947, the family were granted a visa to the United States. Girone and 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. She met and married Jack Girone in 1968 and they moved to Whitestone, 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. She was widowed in 1989.
(Source: HMTC)
On 17 July 2023, following the death of 112-year-old Louise Levy, she became the oldest known living person in the state of New York. However, Levy had spent her final days in Connecticut.
At the moment, Girone is the 5th-oldest (known) living person in the United States, after Naomi Whitehead, Mary Harris, Bonita Gibson, and W.F. (an anonymous lady).
(The featured image: At the age of 111. Source: Newsday)
LongeviQuest extends warm congratulations to Rose Girone on her 113th birthday.
