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'''Israel''' (also transliterated '''"Yisrael"''') '''Kristal''' (born 15 September 1903) is a verified Polish-born Israeli supercentenarian who has been recognised as the World's Oldest Man since the death of [[Yasutaro Koide]] of Japan on January 19, 2016. He is also the oldest living Holocaust survivor.<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3411824/Auschwitz-survivor-aged-112-claims-world-s-oldest-man-not-recognised-no-birth-certificate.html 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</ref>
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'''Israel''' (also transliterated '''"Yisrael"''') '''Kristal''' (born 15 September 1903) is a verified Polish-born Israeli supercentenarian who has been recognised as the World's Oldest Man since the death of [[Yasutaro Koide]] of Japan on January 19, 2016. He is also the oldest living Holocaust survivor.<ref>http://www.grg.org/SC/SCindex.html</ref><ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3411824/Auschwitz-survivor-aged-112-claims-world-s-oldest-man-not-recognised-no-birth-certificate.html 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</ref>
   
 
==Biography==
 
==Biography==

Revision as of 21:18, 15 April 2017

Israel Kristal
Israel Kristal
Israel Kristal
Validated

Israel (also transliterated "Yisrael") Kristal (born 15 September 1903) is a verified Polish-born Israeli supercentenarian who has been recognised as the World's Oldest Man since the death of Yasutaro Koide of Japan on January 19, 2016. He is also the oldest living Holocaust survivor.[1][2]

Biography

Kristal was born in the village of Malenie near Zarnow (Pol. Żarnów), Russian Empire (now Poland), on September 15, 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 lives currently.[3][4][5]

He was internationally recognized as the oldest living Holocaust survivor in 2014, upon the passing of Alice Herz-Sommer of London (although he was in fact older than her at the time), United Kingdom. He was officially recognized as the world's oldest man by Guinness World Records on March 11, 2016.[6]

References


World's Oldest Living Man Titleholders (V • TE)

Sylvester MelvinJoseph Saint-Amour • William Fullingim • John Mosley Turner • Friedrich Wedeking • Frederick Butterfield • Jean Teillet • Charlie Nelson • Charlie Phillips • Zachariah BlackistoneJames NashWalter WilcoxGregory PandazesJoe Thomas • Herman Smith-Johannsen • Alphaeus Philemon Cole • John Evans • Henri Perignon • James Wiggins • Frederick Frazier • Josep Armengol-Jover • Christian Mortensen • Johnson Parks • Walter Richardson • Denzo Ishizaki • Antonio Urrea-Hernandez • John Painter • Antonio Todde • Yukichi Chuganji • Joan Riudavets-Moll • Fred Hale • Emiliano Mercado del Toro • Tomoji Tanabe • Henry Allingham • Walter Breuning • Jiroemon Kimura • Salustiano Sanchez • Arturo Licata • Alexander Imich • Sakari Momoi • Yasutaro Koide • Israel Kristal • Francisco Nunez Olivera • Masazo NonakaDomingo Villa AvisencioChitetsu WatanabeBob WeightonEmilio Flores MarquezSaturnino de la Fuente GarciaJuan Vicente Perez MoraJohn Tinniswood