Rosa Rein was a Swiss supercentenarian

Supercentenarian

A supercentenarian is someone who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in a thousand centenarians....

, and the oldest living person in Switzerland since the 3 September 2006 death of 110-year-old Anna Ringier-Kieser

Anna Ringier

Anna Ringier-Kieser was a Swiss supercentenarian, and, aged 110 at the time of her death, the oldest living person in Switzerland for about two years after the death of 109-year-old Suzanne Jaccard in October 2004. She lived in Zofingen. Her husband died way back in 1930...

, and as of 20 June 2008 their new longevity recordholder. She was one of the 15 verified oldest living people at the time of her death. Rein was the fourth oldest validated person to be born in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

She was born in Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...

 in Dzietzkowitz/Dziećkowice, at the time part of the German Empire

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

, but now in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. A German Jew, her mother died in a Nazi concentration camp and the rest of the family fled from Germany, first to Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, then to Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

, and finally to Switzerland. Rein married twice, but had no children. She lived on her own until 2001, when, after a fall, she decided to move to a nursing home in Paradiso, Switzerland

Paradiso, Switzerland

Paradiso is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.-History:Paradiso is first mentioned in 1335 as Calprino. In 1835 it was first called Paradiso, though that didn't become the official name until 1929....

, where she lived until her death.

See also

• List of German supercentenarians
• National longevity recordholders
  National longevity recordholders
  This is a list of oldest people by nation. It includes the individual, for each given country, who are reported to have had the longest lifespan. Such records can only be determined to the extent that the given country's records are reliable. Comprehensive birth registration largely came into being...
  
  
• Oldest people
  Oldest people
  This is a list of tables of the verified oldest people in the world in ordinal rank, such as oldest person or oldest man. In these tables, a supercentenarian is considered 'verified' if his or her claim has been validated by an international body that specifically deals in longevity research, such...