Yisrael Kristal

Yisrael Kristal was born in 1903 in Żarnów

Kristal was born on 15 September 1903 to a religious Jewish family in Maleniec, near Żarnów, then part of the Russian Empire. His father was a Torah scholar, and Kristal began studying at a cheder at age 3. He stayed religiously observant all his life.

His mother died in 1913. During World War I his father was taken prisoner and died soon after the war, and Kristal lived with his uncles. In 1920 he moved to Łódź, where he opened a candy store with an uncle and married Chaja Feige Frucht in 1928.

During World War II he kept making candy in the Łódź Ghetto, where his 2 children died. In August 1944 he and his wife were sent to Auschwitz, where she was murdered and he survived forced labor. After liberation he rebuilt his candy shop in Łódź and married Batsheva in 1947.

In 1950 the family immigrated to Israel and settled in Haifa. He worked at a candy factory, then made sweets at home, and in 1952 began producing at the Sar and Kristal factory, which closed in 1970. He then made candy at home until he retired.

In 2014 he was recognized as the oldest living Holocaust survivor, and in March 2016 Guinness World Records recognized him as the oldest living man. He held his bar mitzvah in September 2016. He died at his home in Haifa on 11 August 2017.