Margot Friedlander, one of the most famous Holocaust survivors, died on Friday (9.5.2025) at the age of 103. She had returned to Germany after decades as an immigrant in New York to dedicate her life to raising awareness among young people about the crimes of the National Socialists.
"I speak on behalf of those who did not make it," Margot Friedlander said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD a few weeks ago, while tonight she was to be awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Her story has become more widely known through documentaries and her memoirs, and in recent decades she has been honored repeatedly - and at the highest level, such as by former US President Joe Biden.
Who was Margot Friedlander?
Margot Friedlander was born into a Jewish family in Berlin in 1921. Her mother and brother were murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and she herself was arrested and sent to the Theresienstadt camp (Teresin, Czech Republic). She eventually survived, as did her future husband, with whom she later went to the United States. In 2010, at the age of 88, Friedlander returned to Germany and dedicated herself to educating young people, especially in the context of a school program on historical memory that bore her name: "My mission is to say 'be human'. We are all the same. There is no Christian, Jewish, Muslim blood. There is only human blood," she often said. She visited countless schools and encouraged young and old "not to allow what happened then to happen again." Her words, "be human," moved millions of people around the world. "Until the end, she urged the defense of democracy - memory alone is not enough," the Margot Friedlander Foundation said in a statement.
She had no regrets about returning to Berlin, even though friends and relatives in the US tried to dissuade her. “I could never have imagined that I would go back to these pigs,” her cousin said characteristically in the documentary about Margot Friedlander. “I came back to talk to you and to reach out to you. Because I wanted you to be eyewitnesses of the time that we can no longer be,” she would answer anyone who expressed their curiosity about her return to Germany.
Last summer, she appeared on the cover of German Vogue as a symbol of hope and a source of inspiration, and spoke once again about her "mission": "I want to share my life with younger generations and warn about the rise of the far right and anti-Semitism. To remind us of the importance of memory and humanity," she said.
“Margot Friedländer gave our country reconciliation - despite what the Germans did to her when she was young,” Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said of her death, while Bundestag President Julia Klöckner spoke of “a generous martyr who touched people with her compassion.” Chancellor Friedrich Merz described Margot Friedländer as “one of the strongest voices of our time, for peaceful coexistence, against anti-Semitism and forgetting.” She entrusted us with her story, “it is our duty and obligation to continue it,” the Chancellor added.
Source: Athens Voice, 10.5.2025