Obituary: “Be human” – Holocaust -surviving Friedländer is dead

In the end, Margot Friedländer looked very tender, fragile. But the little woman was almost until the end. The Holocaust survivor spoke in school classes at over 100 years, warned at memorial events – friendly, patient, tough. She told of her family, which was murdered by the National Socialists, about her own fate in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. But most importantly she was a message: “Be people.”

On Wednesday she appeared publicly with this important message. Her voice was very weak. Now the Berlin honorary citizen died at the age of 103.

The persecution and disenfranchisement of her own Jewish family under Adolf Hitler was remembered, “as if it were yesterday”, as she said to the German press agency in early 2025. She was one of the last who had experienced all of this and could still report on it.

But Margot Friedländer lived in now. The division of society in Germany and the strengthening of the right rummaged. “I don’t understand very much about politics,” she said in the dpa interview. “But I always say: it started that way. Be careful. Don’t do it.”

A notebook, an amber chain

Margot Friedländer was born in Berlin on November 5, 1921. At that time she was still called Bendheim. Her parents were already divorced when her mother tried to get out of Hitler Germany with her two children in the early 1940s. Immediately before the planned escape to Upper Silesia, Margot’s brother Ralph was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943. The mother stood up so as not to leave her son alone. Both were later murdered in the Auschwitz extermination camp.

Margot remained with a sentence of her mother, who later became the title of her memoirs: “Try to make your life.” The mother also left an amber chain that Margot then wore her life. And a notebook.

The 21-year-old had 16 people who helped her go into changing hiding places. She got through for 15 months, then it went wrong. They caught Jewish “gripes”, which at that time tracked down other Jews for the Nazis. It was deported to Theresienstadt – an “intermediate realm, not living, not death”.

At the end of the war she saw the misery of the people who came from Auschwitz in the turmoil of the past few days. It was certain for her: she would never see her mother and brother again. With her husband Adolf Friedländer she went to the USA, where she worked in a clothing store and as a travel agent. He was at her side for more than 50 years. “We both experienced the same thing, we both had the same pain, we didn’t have to talk about it,” she said later. Her husband died in 1997.

In 2003 Margot Friedländer came back to her hometown for the first time, at the invitation of the Berlin Senate and accompanied by filmmaker Thomas Halaczinsky. He made the film “Don’t Call it homesickness” with her. Already on the first day she felt that this was her home, Friedländer said later. At the end of 80 she moved back to Berlin.

Your American environment was skeptical. The Germans may only see them as a nice old lady and felt less guilty through them, is a objection that she heard. Margot Friedländer got over. She never regretted this return, she said. “I do something you may find strange, but I am – I feel like German.”

On the title of “Vogue”

In her new, old home she got a lot of attention – many heard when the old lady told very impressively. In her apartment in a Berlin senior residence, where she lived with her very self -confident cat, the many prizes and honors found little space. Memorial pictures with politicians hung on the walls, on a table there were, among other things, the “Bambi” for her courage and the framed “Vogue” title picture with her. The late recognition was good for her. “I have had good experiences with parents, adults, adults, children, with students,” she said. “With people.”

Berlin made her an honorary citizen, and she received the Federal Cross of Merit in 2011 for her commitment. This Friday, she should have received the large Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on a public date.

The date was canceled before the message of your death became known. In the evening, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier not only recognized her commitment, but also her deep humanity. “Margot Friedländer has impressed everyone who met her with her warmth, her affection, her tremendous strength,” wrote the Federal President.

“What was, we can no longer change”

She liked to go to the opera until old age when there was time. Her favorite work: “Nabucco”, the story of the captivity of the Hebrews in Babylonia. At the prisoner choir “VA, Pensiero” she often sit in her eyes with tears, she said once.

Friedländer leaves a lot, but above all her message of reconciliation and memory. At the age of 101, she founded a foundation to promote freedom and democracy. This is intended to continue the educational work in schools and also give the Margot-Friedländer Prize.

“What was, we can no longer change, but it must never happen again,” said Friedländer. “Never again should only be added to one person what was done with people at the time because people were not recognized as humans.”

At Skalitzer Straße 32 in Berlin-Kreuzberg, stumbling blocks are reminiscent of the brother Ralph and her mother Auguste Bendheim. Margot also has a stone there. The deportation to Theresienstadt is mentioned on this. Below are: “survive”.