Holocaust survivor Rose Girone has died. She was 113.
Girone died on the morning of Monday, Feb. 24, from old age, according to her daughter Reha Bennicasa, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. She had just celebrated her birthday in January.
While Girone is believed to be the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor, according to the Claims Conference, PEOPLE was unable to independently verify.
According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Girone was born in Janov, Poland, in 1912. Her family settled in Hamburg, Germany, where they ran a theatrical costume shop.
In 1938, she married Julius Mannheim in an arranged marriage, and they moved to Breslau, Germany, which is now Wroclaw, Poland, just as the Nazis launched Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, widespread violence against Germany’s Jews.
Girone was eight months pregnant when Mannheim was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1939, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.
After securing visas, Mannheim was released from Buchenwald, and the family fled to Shanghai. Girone took up knitting there, which helped her when she moved to the United States with her family in 1947.
Following the move, Girone opened two knitting stores in Queens and knit until she was nearly 102 years old, Fox 5 New York reported.
According to the Long Island Herald, Girone divorced Mannheim in 1968 and married Jack Girone. Following his death, she lived alone in an apartment in Beechhurst, Queens, until her family decided to get her an in-home aid when she was 103. At the age of 109, she was moved to a rehabilitation center.
Last month, Girone told the outlet that her secret to long life was to “Live every day with a purpose, have amazing children, and eat lots of dark chocolate.”
While talking about her mother to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Bennicasa said, “Everything that’s out there is really who my mother was.”
“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,” said Bennicasa.
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“She was just a terrific lady… and I don’t know, when God made her, they broke mold,” she added.
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