Nechama Grossman, Israel’s oldest Holocaust survivor, passed away at the age of 109 on Thursday—Yom Hashoah, Israel’s national day of remembrance for Holocaust victim.

Her granddaughter, Luba, shared her grief with Kan News, saying, “I am in shock—I have no words. Honestly, we thought she’d make it to 110. Yesterday… she wasn’t feeling well. She was lucid until the end and died peacefully. On Holocaust Remembrance Day of all days.”

In her final days, Grossman reportedly dreamed of Nazis returning to harm her, waking up fearful that the horrors of her youth were resurfacing. “She was afraid of the Nazis—that it was coming back,” Luba said. “She always said that we need to live in peace and without wars. All the grandchildren served in the army so it wouldn’t happen again.”

The trauma of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks weighed heavily on Grossman in her final months, with her great-grandchildren serving in the IDF. “She cried that it’s happening again, and that antisemitism is rising,” her family recalled.

Her son, Vladimir Shvetz, told reporters, “My mother lived through the worst of humanity and survived. She raised her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with the mission to teach that unchecked hatred cannot win. We must remember her story, remember the Holocaust, remember all the survivors; learn from it so that her past does not become our future.”

Grossman’s levaya was held Friday afternoon in Arad, her longtime hometown, located east of Beersheva.

Grossman was not the only Holocaust survivor to pass away on Yom Hashoah this year. Eve Kugler, a 94-year-old survivor from the United Kingdom who had survived Kristallnacht, also died on Thursday, just as she had been scheduled to take part in the March of the Living in Poland.

According to Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, approximately 120,000 Holocaust survivors remain in Israel today. In the past year alone, around 13,000 survivors passed away—roughly 10% of Israel’s survivor population.

Globally, of the estimated 220,800 Holocaust survivors living across 90 countries, only about 1,400 are centenarians, according to a recent report by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. The report projects a stark decline in the coming years: by 2035, only 66,250 survivors are expected to remain, and by 2040, that number will dwindle to just 22,080.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)