Delray Beach resident Ruth Greenstein, who fled Poland at age 14 during the Holocaust in Poland, recently celebrated her 101st birthday with family, including her great, great grandson, and about 60 friends at Liberty Inn, a short-term rehabillation facility in Delray Beach. Greenstein is still active as she volunteers doing charity work every Monday for the Diamond Club, a group making items for children with cancer.

“I still raise money for the causes I hold dear to my heart. Every Monday I volunteer to be picked up here and taken to make hats for children that are in hospital cancer care,” Greenstein said.

She came to the U.S. at 14 from a small town in Poland. She settled in Brooklyn and the Manhattan boroughs of New York City.

“I’m from a little town in Poland with very poor families. We were farmers and I lived there during World War I,” Greenstein said.

She was the oldest of five sisters. Her family with tears in their eyes told of how she faced the Nazi terror of the Holocaust in Poland.

“She was actually on her way to a death camp when a man stopped her and gave her a passport and told her to flee,” said her daughter Francine Weinberg, a Boynton Beach resident.

Norma Pistiner of Delray Beach is Greenstein’s other daughter that was on hand for the celebration and said that her mother held down the occupation of seamstress even for a period making uniforms for World War II soldiers.

(From left to right) Daughter Francine Weinberg, Evan Weintraub, grand daughter Michelle Weintraub, great grand son Hayden Weintraub, daughter Norma Pistener surround Greenstein just before her big birthday bash.