New Yorker named world's oldest man: ‘It's not like it’s the Nobel Prize’

Alexander Imich, who was born in Poland in 1903, escaped the Holocaust and a Soviet gulag before moving to US, downplays milestone as he is officially recognised as the oldest living man

A 111-year-old New Yorker who has been officially named as the world’s oldest man has downplayed the title, saying it’s “not like it’s the Nobel Prize”.

Alexander Imich was born in Poland on February 4 1903 and moved to America after fleeing the Holocaust and surviving a Soviet gulag.

He became officially recognised as the world’s oldest man following the death last month of Italian Arturo Licata just short of his 112th birthday, and puts his longevity partly down to the fact that he never had children.

Speaking from his apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where he is recovering from a fall which led to him being admitted to hospital on his 111th birthday, Mr Imich said he still remembered the first car being driven through his village, and named the invention of the aeroplane as the greatest of his lifetime.

Asked how he felt about being the world's oldest male supercentenarian (those over the age of 110) he told the New York Times: “I didn’t have time yet to think about it. I never thought I’d be that old.”