Margot Friedländer, survivor of the Shoah and one of the most eminent witnesses in Germany of the horrors of Nazism, died on Friday May 9 at 103 in his city of Berlin, announced its foundation. “With his death, Germany loses an important voice of contemporary history”estimated the foundation.
“Since his return to his hometown, after six decades of exile in New York, this honorary citizen of Berlin had committed himself tirelessly in favor of reconciliation and memory”she added in a press release.
Margot Friedländer should have received one of the highest German decorations from the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday, but the ceremony was canceled at his health due to his health.
“The news of the death of Margot Friedländer fills me with a deep sadness”said the latter. “She offered reconciliation to our country, despite all that the Germans made her suffer when she was young. We cannot be grateful to him too much for this gift ”he said in a press release. “We bow before Margot Friedländer, this wonderful German Jewish Berlin”he added.
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“Look at what unites you”
This woman of frail appearance still elegantly dressed – she had posed in one of the fashion magazine Vogue In 2024 – had returned to his hometown of Berlin for the first time in 2003.
She had then devoted her life to meeting young people to tell her story and advocate empathy as an antidote against hatred. “Do not look at what separates you. Look at what unites you. Be humans “had she still pleaded last year.
Born Margot Bendheim in 1921 in a family of buttons manufacturers, she followed a seamstress training. Under Nazism, she lost her parents and young brother, murdered in the concentration camps.
She herself was sent in 1944 to that of Theresienstadt, in the current Czech Republic, where she met her future husband, Adolf Friedländer. Both have survived, got married and went to life in the United States.
After the death of Adolf in 1997, she met the German producer Thomas Halaczinsky who had offered to come to Berlin to shoot a documentary on her life. In 2010, she will finally decide to settle permanently in her hometown.
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