Rose Girone, believed to be the oldest survivor of the Holocaust, died in North Bellmore, NY, on Long Island, on Feb. 24. She was 113. Her secret to longevity, she said: dark chocolate and good children.

Rose Girone was eight months pregnant and living in Breslau, Germany, in 1938, when her husband was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. She secured passage to Shanghai, only to be forced to live in a bathroom in a Jewish ghetto for seven years. Once settled in the United States, she rented whatever she could find while supporting her daughter by knitting. She made friends with other refugees, including a Viennese Jewish businessman who helped her turn her knitting into a business. It would be a lifeline for decades to come. Eventually, she had saved enough money to open a knitting store with a partner in Rego Park, Queens, and she opened a second store in Forest Hills. She continued to work and teach knitting until she was 102.

There are about 245,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors alive around the world, according to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. “This passing reminds us of the urgency of sharing the lessons of the Holocaust while we still have firsthand witnesses with us,” said Greg Schneider, the organization’s executive vice president. “The Holocaust is slipping from memory to history, and its lessons are too important, especially in today’s world, to be forgotten.”