Centenarian Wolf Abramowitz passed away in April during the second days of Passover, as a result of complications due to COVID-19.

Born in Satmar (Satu Mare, Romania), he was just a young man when he was thrust into the chaos of World War II and the Holocaust, including spending time as an inmate at Auschwitz.

Surviving the inferno, he made his way to the United States to rebuild his life, where he married a fellow Holocaut survivor. Together with his new wife, he established Abramowitz’s, a grocery store to service the close-knit and rapidly growing Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The market quickly took off, and after several years, they had to find a larger location, eventually buying a property formerly owned by the famed Ribnitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Chaim Zanvl Abramowitz.

The store at 15th Avenue and 43rd Street became an iconic landmark. Customers were like family to the owners, who made a point of knowing each one personally, even attending their family celebrations.

The Abramowitzes ran the store for decades before selling it and retiring to split their time between New York and Florida.

Abramowitz was predeceased by his wife by only a few months. The couple is survived by their daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Readers are invited to express their condolences or memories of the departed in the Reader Comments box that follows this article.

To provide additional information for this article, or to submit the names and information about other Jewish victims of the coronavirus, please use this form.