Rose Girone, believed to be oldest living Holocaust survivor, dies aged 113
Rose Girone, believed to be the oldest living Holocaust survivor and a strong advocate for sharing survivors' stories, has died. She was 113.
She died Monday in New York, according to the Claims Conference, a New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
'She just was a terrific lady,' her daughter, Reha Benicassa, said by phone Friday. 'Nothing was too hard. She wasn't fearful. She was an adventurous person. She did well.'
Girone was born on 13 January 1912 in Janow, Poland. Her family moved to Hamburg, Germany, when she was six, she said in a filmed interview in 1996 with the USC Shoah Foundation.
When asked by the interviewer if she had any particular career plans before Adolf Hitler, she said that he 'came in 1933 and then it was over for everybody'.
Girone was one of about 245,000 survivors still living across more than 90 countries, according to a study released by the Claims Conference last year. Their numbers are quickly dwindling, as most are very old and often of frail health, with a median age of 86.
'Rose was an example of fortitude but now we are obligated to carry on in her memory,' Greg Schneider, Claims Conference executive vice-president, said in a statement Thursday. 'The lessons of the Holocaust must not die with those who endured the suffering.'
Six million European Jews and people from other minorities were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.
'This passing reminds us of the urgency of sharing the lessons of the Holocaust while we still have first-hand witnesses with us,' Schneider said. 'The Holocaust is slipping from memory to history, and its lessons are too important, especially in today's world, to be forgotten.'
Girone married Julius Mannheim in 1937 through an arranged marriage.
She was nine months pregnant living in Breslau, which is now Wroclaw, Poland, when Nazis arrived to take Mannheim to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Their family had two cars, so she asked her husband to leave his keys.
She said she remembers one Nazi saying: 'Take that woman also.'
The other Nazi responded: 'She's pregnant, leave her alone.'
The next morning her father-in-law was also taken, and she was left alone with their housekeeper.
After her daughter Reha was born in 1938, Girone was able to secure Chinese visas from relatives in London and secure her husband's release.
In Genoa, Italy, when Reha was only six months old, they boarded a ship to Japan-occupied Shanghai with little more than clothing and some linens.
Her husband first made money through buying and selling secondhand goods. He saved up to buy a car and started a taxi business, while Girone knitted and sold sweaters.
But in 1941, Jewish refugees were rounded up into a ghetto. The family of three were forced to cram into a bathroom in a house while roaches and bed bugs crawled through their belongings.
Her father-in-law came just before the second world war started, but fell ill and died. They had to wait in line for food and lived under the rule of a ruthless Japanese man who called himself 'King of the Jews.'
'They did really horrible things to people,' Girone said of the Japanese military trucks that patrolled the streets. 'One of our friends got killed because he wouldn't move fast enough.'
Information about the war in Europe only circulated in the form of rumors as British radios were not allowed.
When the war was over, they began receiving mail from Girone's mother, grandmother and other relatives in the US. With their help, they boarded a ship to San Francisco in 1947 with only $80, which Girone hid inside buttons.
They arrived in New York City in 1947. She later started a knitting store with the help of her mother.
'Her theories were always, 'Don't sweat the small stuff,' and 'anything you can fix with money is not a problem,'' her daughter said. 'She just had a great head on her shoulders.'
Also in New York, Girone was reunited with her brother, who went to France for school and ended up getting his US citizenship by joining the army. When she went to the airport to pick him up in New York, it was her first time seeing him in 17 years.
Girone later divorced Mannheim. In 1968, she met Jack Girone, the same day her granddaughter was born. By the next year they were married. He died in 1990.
When asked in 1996 for the message she would like to leave for her daughter and granddaughter, she said: 'Nothing is so very bad that something good shouldn't come out of it. No matter what it is.'
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BBC News
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Is it better to neglect your garden?
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As beautiful, pollinator-friendly gardens pop up across the globe, with neat "bee hotels" attached to fences and immaculate patchworks of wildflowers, some experts are questioning whether this is truly what wildlife needs – or if a bit more neglect could be more environmentally supportive in the long run. The leaves of many so-called weeds are food for insects at different life stages, while heaps of messy debris provide vital habitats – should we really clear these things away? A new approach As it happens, creating a wildlife garden doesn't just mean planting flowers that provide nectar and pollen. A true wildlife haven offers a year-round habitat for local species, and this may translate to letting areas of your green space get a little messy. "There's new excitement about supporting the full annual cycle of insects," says Desirée Narango, a conservation biologist at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, Vermont. This doesn't just mean the plants that they need for food, for example, but also where they spend the winter, she says. "We want to support everything that these insects need to have sustainable populations, because then they can be more resilient against the myriad of other things that they have to deal with out there," she says. Narango lives in rural Vermont, and her entire backyard is a meadow of native plants that basically takes care of itself. "We have a beautiful, pristine habitat all around us that's sourcing a lot of really amazing native plants, and so I don't have to do anything, because they're dispersing into that area on their own," she explains. She does have to remove dandelions from time to time to keep the non-native, invasive species from getting a foothold, but she picks her battles. "There is evidence from North America and Europe that native plants support a greater variety of species than non-native plants," says Shepherd. Having some non-native plants in the mix can also support pollinators by increasing the nectar supply, as long as they're kept in check (invasive species have a proclivity for taking over and wiping out less hardy native species). Narango's scenario, however, is not what you'll find in the typically suburban backyard where turf often reigns supreme. If you're hoping to create a wildlife garden in this environment, you'll likely need to remove what's there and start from scratch to give native plants a chance to thrive, says Miller Helmholdt. "If you're starting from scratch, you'll be getting rid of some of those weed seeds in the seed bank that aren't going to be great." She recommends tilling the soil a few times to remove weed seeds in the soil so they don't all germinate and compete with the native species you plant. A moment for weeds Despite their reputation, so-called 'weeds' in a garden or lawn serve a purpose in supporting pollinators. A 2016 study found that increasing the amount of white clover in the UK would help significantly with increasing the amount of nectar available to pollinators. Meanwhile, stinging nettles are known to support over 40 species of insects in their native range across Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa. Considering that, it might seem counterintuitive to constantly remove these plants if you're trying to promote biodiversity. But Narango says there's a catch. Outside their native range, Narango explains that so-called weeds such as clover and dandelions mostly just support generalist species of insect – pollinators which aren't picky about which flowers they visit. "…they're not really supporting specialist species, vulnerable species, or species of high conservation concern. That's where you need the native [plant] species," she says. That said, in some areas, white clover is native and therefore not considered invasive. "If you live in an area where clover is native, it's a very different story than if you're in an area where it's non-native," says Narango. You don't need to go entirely native Turning your entire plot into a wildlife garden is a boon for biodiversity, but it's not an attainable goal for everyone. According to a recently published study Narango co-authored, converting at least 70% still makes a notable difference. It considered the impacts native and non-native landscaping have on food availability for birds (largely insects), and found non-native plants do reduce insect count, which ultimately impacts bird population growth. But there's a silver lining: "We were able to identify a threshold so that we could provide targeted [non-native plant] goalposts for people to strive for," says Narango. The researchers found that if more than 70% of your garden's biomass is native, that allows birds to sustain their populations. Doing less with your garden and letting things get a little messy, especially during strategic times of year, such as early spring, can help to protect emerging wildlife. For example, the international campaign No Mow May encourages people [in the Northern hemisphere] to stop mowing for the entire month of May, to allow plants to bloom and set seed without being flattened or decapitated. However, Susannah Lerman, a research ecologist for the United States Department of Agriculture's Forest Service Northern Research Station and adjunct professor at the University of Massacresetts in Amherst, US, prefers the term "Slow Mow Summer". Her research on the effects of mowing frequency found that mowing less in general leads to more flowering plants and therefore more bees. "A lot of [pollinators] are ground-nesting bees, so actually not mowing until April or May is a good thing, because it allows them to come out of their winter nesting grounds. So, there are benefits to a little bit of neglect," says Miller Helmholdt. What if you just do nothing? There are benefits and challenges to letting your garden go completely. For one thing, in the absence of human intervention, the most aggressive, non-native species have an opportunity to take over. "When you have hyper-aggressive plants, that's the enemy of diversity, because they outcompete a lot of what could have been there," says Larry Weaner, an ecological landscape designer and founder of Larry Weaner Landscape Associates Designs, based in Pennsylvania. What you're left with is a more homogenised garden, which is not great for native pollinators who might be struggling to sustain their population. "You might get an overabundance of some weedy species that might look like they're good for bees, but in reality, are not doing very much," says Narango. Shepherd says the result could be a "tangled mess" that "will provide some food and shelter, but I'd expect its overall value for wildlife will be less than if it were a tended plot supporting a greater diversity of native plants." However, there are totally neglected landscapes that have seen wildlife proliferation. Some so-called brownfield sites – areas of land that previously had a commercial or industrial use – such as defunct and derelict factory properties, are now home to endangered species in the UK. This includes the distinguished jumping spider, which enjoys salty, sandy environments, and is found at just two locations – both brownfield sites near London. Though brownfield sites were never managed gardens, they demonstrate how, when properties are just left, "there were lots of opportunities for plant communities to reoccupy the sites," says Shepherd. Similarly in the US, Detroit's industrial decline led to a multitude of abandoned sites that now teem with wildlife. While experts recommend doing a little less mowing and pruning in the spring and summer, it's also recommended to let some things pile up in the autumn, specifically leaves. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a non-profit organisation focused on the conservation of invertebrates, promotes an initiative called Leave the Leaves that advocates for this to protect insects that overwinter on your property. More like this:• The alien shrub that can't be stopped• The beautiful flowers that bees can't use• What is 'low-carbon gardening'? "[You shouldn't] take the rake and the leaf blower and cut down all the dead things, especially under trees, and in your meadow areas, because a lot of insects are overwintering in those dead stems and in that leaf litter," cautions Narango. Take the luna moth. In its caterpillar stage, the insect drops from a tree in the hope of finding a safe place to pupate. A leaf pile or a small native garden can provide this "soft landing", a term coined by the pollinator conservationist Heather Holm. "If all [the caterpillar] finds is compacted soil and lawn, it can't do anything. It's dead. It didn't matter that you even planted the tree [as far as the insect is concerned]," says Narango. Meanwhile, other pollinators benefit from slightly different forms of neglect. "The majority of bees nest underground, so leaving areas of bare or unmulched soil [without a covering of compost, leaf mould or wood chippings to suppress weeds or retain moisture] is important," says Lerman. "Other species are pith-nesters, so leaving dead plants in the yard is beneficial since bees (and wasps) either excavate or use existing tunnels in the spongy inner part of stems. In general, less intensive management of our yards can benefit a whole suite of species," she says. Starting a pollinator garden If you're ready to start a pollinator garden, Narango suggests first taking a look around your property and seeing what native species you already have. Narango recommends using a plant-identifying app to take photos of plants and insects to learn about the present ecosystem. Once you get a sense of what's there, she recommends going to a plant nursery specialising in selling native plants. "Many of these nurseries also sell plants that they can guarantee don't have systemic pesticides," she notes. If you're specifically hoping to attract native bees, Miller Helmholdt explains that you might want to research which flowering plants the native bees in your area like the most. "In New York, [for example], there are over 90 native bees, and each one has specific flowers that they're attracted to," she says. You can even create a bee lawn, a specific grass mix that won't grow tall but has flowers that will attract pollinators, in case you're worried about any residential rules in your area. "Many cities in the US have weed ordinances, and many homeowners' associations have landscaping rules that are often restrictive and at odds with a wildlife garden," says Shepherd. Shepherd says that making wilder gardens can help to expand the area of usable habitat and directly contribute towards the recovery of insects. "If you do it, your neighbour, your friend in the next block, incrementally, we can create a patchwork of habitat that will collectively transform our landscapes," he says. -- For essential climate news and hopeful developments to your inbox, sign up to the Future Earth newsletter, while The Essential List delivers a handpicked selection of features and insights twice a week. 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South Wales Guardian
2 days ago
- South Wales Guardian
Veterans attend Normandy commemorations on 81st anniversary of D-Day
Along the coastline and near the D-Day landing beaches, tens of thousands of onlookers attended the commemorations, which included parachute jumps, flyovers, remembrance ceremonies, parades and historical re-enactments. Many were there to cheer the ever-dwindling number of surviving veterans in their late 90s and older. All remembered the thousands who died. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth commemorated the anniversary of the D-Day landings, in which American soldiers played a leading role, with veterans at the American cemetery overlooking the shore in the village of Colleville-sur-Mer. The June 6 1944 invasion of Nazi-occupied France used the largest-ever armada of ships, troops, planes and vehicles to breach Hitler's defences in western Europe. A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself. In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. The battle – and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities – killed around 20,000 French civilians between June and August 1944. The exact German casualties are unknown but historians estimate between 4,000 and 9,000 men were killed, wounded or missing during the D-Day invasion alone. 'The heroism, honour and sacrifice of the Allied forces on D-Day will always resonate with the US armed forces and our allies and partners across Europe,' said Lieutenant General Jason T Hinds, deputy commander of US Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa. 'Let us remember those who flew and fell. Let us honour those who survived and came home to build a better world. 'Let us ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain by meeting today's challenges with the same resolve, the same clarity of purpose and the same commitment to freedom.' Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on D-Day. Of those, 73,000 were from the United States and 83,000 from Britain and Canada. Forces from several other countries were also involved, including French troops fighting with General Charles de Gaulle. The Allies faced around 50,000 German forces. More than two million Allied soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics and other people from a dozen countries were involved in the overall Operation Overlord, the battle to wrest western France from Nazi control that started on D-Day.
