Genealogy Blog 

Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the ill-fated 1943 Warsaw ghetto revolt against the Nazis, died Friday at the age of 90. Edelman died of old age at the family home of his friend Paula Sawicka, where he had lived for the past two years.

Edelman was born Jan. 1, 1919 in Homel, which was then in eastern Poland and is now in Belarus. His family soon moved to Warsaw.

When the Nazis invaded Poland on Sept.1, 1939, Edelman was member of Bund, a Jewish socialist organization that later masterminded plans for resistance against the occupying Germans.

The Nazis "wanted to destroy the people and we fought to protect the people in the ghetto, to extend their lives by a day, or two or five," Edelman said.

The ghetto fighters inflicted heavy losses on the Germans, but eventually succumbed. More than 55,000 people were killed or deported to Nazi concentration camps when the uprising failed.

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Gertrude Baines, who lived to be the world's oldest person on a steady diet of crispy bacon, fried chicken and ice cream, died Friday at a nursing home. She was 115.

Baines, who remarked last year that she enjoyed life so much she wouldn't mind living another 100 years, died in her sleep, said Emma Camanag, administrator at Western Convalescent Hospital.

The centenarian likely suffered a heart attack, said her longtime physician, Dr. Charles Witt. An autopsy was scheduled to determine the cause of death.

"I saw her two days ago, and she was just doing fine," Witt told The Associated Press. "She was in excellent shape. She was mentally alert. She smiled frequently."

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Harry Patch was past his 100th birthday before he began speaking out about the horrors he endured as a machine gunner in Flanders in World War I, when he survived the fighting at Ypres that was among the bloodiest in a war that took the lives of nearly 900,000 men from Britain and its colonies.

When Mr. Patch finally broke 80 years of silence, in the final decade of a life that was honored by thousands of mourners who gathered at his funeral on Thursday in this quiet cathedral town set in rolling green hills 140 miles west of London, his message was not the traditional story of valor and patriotism under fire. Rather, he took as his central themes the futility of war and the common humanity of soldiers who meet as enemies on the battlefield.

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Henry Allingham understood the cost of war in his heart, his guts and his bones — and made it his mission to share that knowledge. It seems he succeeded.

Politicians, military chiefs, a large extended family and hundreds of respectful strangers bade farewell Thursday to Allingham, the world's oldest man and one of Britain's last survivors of World War I.

Allingham, who died July 18 at 113, was a modest man who earned a place in history, and spent his final years reminding younger generations of the futility of war.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the medieval church and broke into applause as Allingham's coffin, draped in a red-white-and-blue Union flag and topped with red roses, was carried into the church by Royal Navy and Royal Air Force pallbearers.

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The world's oldest man, 113-year-old World War I veteran Henry Allingham, died Saturday after spending his final years reminding Britain about the 9 million soldiers killed during the conflict.

Allingham was the last surviving original member of the Royal Air Force, which was formed in 1918. He made it a personal crusade to talk about a conflict that wiped out much of a generation. Though nearly blind, he would take the outstretched hands of visitors in both of his, gaze into the eyes of children, veterans and journalists and deliver a message he wanted them all to remember.

"I want everyone to know," he told The Associated Press during an interview in November. "They died for us."

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Great War veteran Henry Allingham became the world's oldest man today following the death of the previous holder of the title in Japan, Guinness World Records said. Mr Allingham, one of only two surviving First World War veterans in the UK and the last surviving founder member of the RAF, celebrated his 113th birthday on June 6.

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Australia's oldest man and its last surviving veteran of World War I died on Wednesday at the age of 110.

Jack Ross, who joined the Australian Imperial Force in the last months of World War I 91 years ago, died in his sleep in a nursing home in the southern country town of Bendigo, the Golden Oaks Nursing Home said.

Ross, who was born in 1899, enlisted in the Australian military that fought with British forces in January 1918 and was trained in the use of radio before being assigned to the 1st Battalion in his native Victoria state.

But the Great War drew to an end in November of the same year and Ross was demobilised before being posted overseas.

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One of the last surviving prisoners of war (PoW) from Stalag Luft III, the focus of the 1963 film The Great Escape, has died in Scotland.

Alex Lees, 97, and born in Manchester, had been the gardener in the famous PoW camp in Germany during World War II.

Mr Lees used his work to help get rid of the spoil dug from the escape tunnels at the camp.

Of those who broke out of the camp only three reached safety and of the 73 recaptured, 50 were shot.

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The UK's oldest man has reached a new milestone by becoming the oldest ever British man, after clocking up 112 years and 296 days.

Henry Allingham has lived longer than Welshman John Evans, who died in 1990 aged 112 years and 295 days.

Mr Allingham is one of two surviving World War I veterans in the UK and is also the oldest Royal Navy veteran.

Mr Allingham, who has dedicated much of his time in recent years to giving talks to schoolchildren about his experiences, will be 113 years old on 6 June.

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