At 112, Holocaust survivor in Haifa is deemed ‘World’s Oldest Man’

 

After providing an official document issued in 1918 as proof, Israeli Holocaust survivor who’s living in Haifa, Yisrael Kristal, has acquired Guinness World Records recognition.

By i24news

 

Yisrael Kristal, a 112-year-old Holocaust survivor living in Israel, has been formally recognized as the world’s oldest man, Haaretz reports.

Taken on January 21, 2016, Yisrael Kristal sitting in his home in the Israeli city of Haifa, Israel – Photo: AFP

Reports surfaced at the end of January that Kristal’s grandson Oren had received an email from the Gerontology Research Group informing him that Yasutaro Koide of Japan had passed away, just two months short of his 113th birthday.

The international body that verifies and tracks people who are at least 110 years old and sends its list to the Guinness World Records organization said that Kristal was now a candidate for the title of the world’s oldest man following Koide’s death.

However, Kristal had to prove his age — and has now done so thanks to archive documents that were unearthed in Poland over the last few months.

The Guinness Book of Records rules state that a person’s age must be proved by an official document issued during the first 20 years of their life. Kristal had a marriage license issued in Poland 87 years ago when he was 25 years old.

And now he has a document registering him as a resident of Lodz that was issued in 1918, when he was 15 years old.

According to Haaretz, this is the first time that an Israeli has held the Guinness Book of Records title for “World’s Oldest Man.” Kristal, now a Haifa resident, was born in Zarnow, Poland, on September 15, 1903.

In 1920, when he was 17, he moved to Lodz to work in the family confections business, and he continued to make sweets in the ghetto when it was established in 1940.

Four years later he was sent to Auschwitz, where he lost his wife, according to Haaretz.

After the Holocaust, he moved to Haifa in 1950 with his second wife and their son.

Currently, the world’s oldest person is American Susannah Mushatt Jones who is 116 and was born on July 6, 1899, according to the Guinness World Records website.

 

View original i24news publication at:
http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/society/105723-160310-israeli-holocaust-survivor-is-named-world-s-oldest-man

 

 

 

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