Israel Kristal | |
Kristal (aged 112-113) in 2016 | |
Birth: | 15 September 1903 Malenie, Russian Empire (now Poland) |
Death: | 11 August 2017 Haifa, Israel |
Age: | 113 years, 330 days |
Country: | POL ISR |
Validated |
Israel Kristal, originally "Izrael" (15 September 1903 – 11 August 2017), sometimes transliterated "Yisrael Kristal", was a validated Polish-born Israeli supercentenarian who was recognised as the World's Oldest Man from the death of Yasutaro Koide on 18 January 2016 until his own death on 11 August 2017. He was also the oldest (known) living Holocaust survivor at the time of his death.[1][2] He is also the third-oldest European-born man ever, behind Christian Mortensen and Joan Riudavets-Moll.
Biography
Kristal was born in the village of Malenie near Zarnow (Pol. Żarnów), Russian Empire (now Poland), on 15 September 1903. Now, the village is part of Lodz Voivodeship. His mother died when he was young. His father was drafted during World War I and young Israel was forced to work hard to make a living. Due to the War, he never had a Bar Mitzvah.
In 1920, he moved to Lodz. He married in 1928 at the age of 25. Together with his wife, they ran a confectionary factory. After the outbreak of World War II, Lodz became occupied by the Germans. In 1940, the Kristal family was forced by the Nazis to move into a special Jewish district called the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Yisrael Kristal lived in the ghetto between 1940–1944. His first wife and their two children died in the Holocaust. In 1944, Yisrael Kristal was deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Later, he was a prisoner of a few other labour camps and, was finally freed in May 1945. He returned to Lodz and restarted his confectionery business, married again and had a son. In 1950, the family left Poland and settled in Haifa, Israel, where he resided at the time of his death.[3][4][5]
Kristal was internationally recognized as the oldest living Holocaust survivor in 2014, upon the passing of Alice Herz-Sommer of London, United Kingdom (although he was in fact older than her at the time)
He became the oldest known Polish person and European man alive when Doctor Alexander Imich died on 8 June 2014.
He was officially recognized as the world's oldest man by Guinness World Records on 11 March 2016.[6]
Around September 2016, he turned 113 and celebrated Bar mitzvah, a traditional Jewish ceremony normally held at a time a boy is 13, which he couldn't have had then due to World War I.
Kristal died in Haifa, Israel on 11 August 2017 at the age of 113 years, 330 days.[7]
Gallery
References
- ↑ GERONTOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
- ↑ Auschwitz survivor aged 112 claims he is the world's oldest man but may not be recognised because he has no birth certificate The Daily Mail
- ↑ 'Saved by God': Jew who survived Holocaust becomes world's oldest man at 112 International Business Times
- ↑ Guinness confirms Israeli Holocaust survivor, 112, may be world’s oldest man The Times of Israel
- ↑ Israeli Holocaust survivor, 112, likely oldest man in the world The Jerusalem Post
- ↑ Guinness World Records announces Holocaust survivor Israel Kristal as world’s oldest living man Guinness World Records
- ↑ World's oldest man, Holocaust survivor, dies in Israel aged 113 Reuters
Israel's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (V • E) |
Julia Lefebvre • Jacob Beino • Myrtle Drucker • Sarah Beckerman • Faina Teper • Asriel Tamshes • Prima Freuger • Luci Brandstetter • Moshe Kipnis • Zfora Tsila Glanzman • Belle Judith Horowitz Goldstein • Margarete Levy • Nadezhda Schregel • Maria Pogonowska • Yaakov Slavin • Yehudit Jenney • Miriam Pollak • Jacob Ben Zanatta • Israel Kristal • Henya Rabinov • Heinke Gilad • Morris Wioskowski • Aziz Levy |