Auschwitz Survivor Now Holds Distinction As World’s Oldest Man


Say hello to Yisrael Kristal, the Guinness World Record Holder for the World’s Oldest Man. He was born in Poland in 1903, and survived both World Wars.. He was 112 years and 178 days old as of March 11. He said he doesn’t really know the “secret” to a long life.

Kristal is the son of a religious scholar; he started taking Hebrew and Bible lessons at the age of three. He got separated from his parents in World War I at age eleven.

He later took over the family confectionery business in 1920. After the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, he was moved into the Lodz ghetto with his family.

Two of his children passed away there, and he lost his wife at Auschwitz. He survived through the war doing slave labour at Auschwitz and other camps.

When he was found by the Allies in 1945, he weighed a mere 80 pounds. He moved to Israel in 1950 with his second wife and kids where he continued to run his confectionery business. He continued to grow his family and his business from there.

Kristal said he believes everything “is determined from above” and we will never know why. He first got recognition in 2014 for being the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor at 110 years old.

“There have been smarter, stronger and better looking men then me who are no longer alive,” he added. “All that is left for us to do is to keep on working as hard as we can and rebuild what is lost.”

Guinness used the Gerontology Research Group to help verify Mr. Kristal’s age.

The previous holder of the oldest man title, Yasutaro Koide, died in January at the age of 112 years and 312 days.

The “Oldest Living Person” title goes to Susannah Mushatt Jones; she is 116 years old.

Featured image by Adam Tas via flickr.com, available under Creative Commons 2.0 license.

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