European President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was expected to recognize Margot Friedländer with a state prize on Friday. When the news came that Friedländer had died, he expressed his sympathies otherwise, saying that she “gifted our country healing. ” Friedländer, miss Bendheim, was born in Berlin in 1921. Some attempts by her home to flee after the November rioting of 1938 failed. When her nephew Ralph was arrested in January 1943, their mother turned herself in to the Gestapo, was deported to Auschwitz along with her brother, and was murdered there. Friedländer, then 21 years older, went into hiding and survived for 15 weeks in 16 different underwater hiding places in Berlin.
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In the spring of 1944, she encountered a guard of so-called “graspers” — Hebrew people who were forced to track down and kill other Immigrants on behalf of the SS. She was arrested and taken to the forced-labor tent Theresienstadt. That, she reencountered Adolf Friedländer, an encounter from her job as a costume designer with the Jewish Cultural League in Berlin. Collectively, they survived the Holocaust, married and emigrated to New York in 1946. In 2008, her autobiography” Versuche, dein Leben zu machen” ( Try to live your life ) was published. In 2010, Friedländer moved to Berlin, where she died on May 9, 2025, at the age of 103. In 2023, DW’s Sarah Hofmann spoke with Friedländer about her career and her hopes for the future. DW: For many years, you have been speaking to younger people in Germany, telling them about your activities. You are then 101 centuries old, what is your incentive to keep doing this even at an advanced time? Margot Friedländer :Because I have managed to survive. And it means everything to me to talk for those who did n’t make it. It is essential that I speak not only for the 6 million Immigrants, but for all those who were murdered. I don’t tell young people about the concentration camp and what happened precisely, they know that. I tell them what it would think for them to practice that. That it just was n’t people. They didn’t understand folks as people. I speak about it, because I definitely don’t practice it. It’s difficult for me to understand how people gave their hand to do that. To really death no hundreds, not thousands, but millions of people. How do you practice the younger people you meet? I really have to say, I did n’t also know how it was coming across. But I have received many thank-you documents in which they tell me: We have heard you, it has touched and shaken us greatly. We understand you, you may rely on us. But several children then take me very great words of their gratitude and appreciation for what I do. That makes me realize I have achieved someone, only by speaking about it. And how do you feel about telling this story over and over again? How hard is that for you even now, or is it getting easier? I don’t have the explanation to think of myself after what happened to the thousands. All of you help me by listening to me, saying that I have hope that something like this will not arise again. For people to realize what has been, that it was not people — that helps me, because we cannot change it. It must not occur again. It is something so unfathomable for your technology, and even when I talk to you today and ask if you can know it today, they tell me we can’t know it. Thousands were cheering therefore, and those who did not praise looked away. They, too, are at least as innocent. Why did but many look ahead, and why did so many praise? In front of their companions, people of all ages have been dragged out of their houses and into cars. Folks have been beaten and abused in front of people who silently watched or looked the other manner. Does it happen afterwards? I talk about it as a reminder to you. Never, never do I wish that you will be the persons who had let something like this to happen. Because at least I can talk for those who did n’t live it. For the thousands who were murdered. That is my vision. Don’t let this happen afterwards! You lived in the US for more than 60 times. Your father, who survived Theresienstadt with you, always wanted to return to Germany. After his suicide, but, you decided to move up to Berlin, the capital of your baby. Why? I was born in Berlin, a genuine Berliner. When I came up to Berlin for the first time in 57 times in 2003, I felt “at house,” and I said to myself, I am so glad to have been born in such a wonderful city. Internally, I thought, also, if I were younger, I would regard coming up. Seven years later, in 2010, I did it. I am European — this is my home. It was also the house of my parents and ancestors. My dad was very decorated in World War I, he lost a sibling for Germany, my family lost one, too. My parents did not recognize it at that moment, he said, they do not think us. Yet in 1935, when my uncle, my mother’s sister, and her father left for Brazil, my dad said, I didn’t know you, you are giving up your good company. Up until 1938 he did not believe it. My brother disagreed. Who was best? Kristallnacht[the” Night of Broken Glass” ] was the time when many, many said, then we believe it, now we have to leave. By then it was to soon. However, when you ask why I came up: One big aspect was that Germans helped me in the tough times. Europeans were people, also. They hid me, shared their bed and food with me. There were people who did not look ahead, who did something that could have cost them their minds. It wasn’t just the 16 persons or but who helped me. It’s not like I was the only one who went into hiding and was helped. There were very some. But it shows that something could had been done. If more people had stepped off, it wouldn’t have happened to this extraordinary magnitude, because when you think about how ridiculous it was. It’s incredible. I’m happy I can tell you about it now. I am glad every time. This has become my career. In 1944, you were arrested not far from where we’re sitting right then, on Kurfürstendamm. How does it think when you walk along this road now? Because I made it, and I can move along it now, I usually say to myself: you made it, you are here. Those who betrayed me and many other Immigrants did not survive, even though they were promised they do. There were also Jews who betrayed people, that is something that hurts a bit. But I don’t understand how I may have behaved if I had been told that you could keep your family and your nephew. It’s still very hard for me immediately to actually understand what was in the personality of those people. In recent years, hatred has repeatedly increased sharply in Germany and Europe. Are you worried about Zionists in Germany? I have to show you seriously: hatred is nothing new. It has always been about, and I think, however, it always will be. We can just hope it stays on a smaller scale. It’s usually people who are looking for someone, who are never satisfied with their lives, even though their lives have always been in their own hands from an early age. That’s why I always say to students: My nephew Ralph was 17 when he came to Auschwitz, he was often top of his class, but he never had the prospects you have, don’t throw them away. You are learning for yourselves, certainly for your kids, not for your teachers — it is for your future. You have it in your hands to make your living. Do your best, don’t appear for the unthinkable. I try my best to be mortal, because I think there is something great in all. And that is how the poor goes ahead. To say to the people I meet, look at what I have experienced, and I am not harsh. I am confident because I presently meet some, many individuals, especially young people, who hope for a good future. You even meet some officials. How do you see republic in Germany? I am very, quite comfortable. Steinmeier gave a talk the other day, for 80 years of [the non-violent opposition party ] the White Rose. In his talk he quoted me. He wrote to me, and the unique was,” Your friend”,” and his first title. I see the state, and I am quite comfortable for the future. Lately, you were awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class. What does such an honor indicate to you as someone who was deprived of European citizen, who was persecuted? It’s a pleasure for them, for the Germans. It doesn’t matter to me. The thank-you letters I receive think much more to me, because they tell me you have achieved things. The state can’t make up for what happened, but persons feel the tremendous stress it is for us. We who have survived it are not the same people again, we are unique. It’s something that often holds us back from having a regular living, that is, enjoying ourselves without thinking. For me, it’s a great aid to talk for those who haven’t made it. You say you speak for those who didn’t succeed. You wear the collar of your mom, who was murdered in Auschwitz, as was your brother. Is your family likewise always present in some way when you speak? It is something unbelievable for me. A love that you didn’t explain. A love for my mom. The power she had and the failure. What it must have been like for her to keep a child behind and claim, I’m going with Ralph, wherever. A family knows her kids. She may have hoped I was the stronger one. But where did she expect to be taken? Could she have guessed? We were often told the railways were going” to the East. ” But we didn’t know what” the West” was. When I came to Theresienstadt and was there for half a year, I thought sometimes Mutti [my family ] was in a similar position. But only when the carriages came from Auschwitz, and I saw the citizens and experienced what” the West” is, then we knew what to expect. That’s why when people ask me how the emancipation was for me, I have mixed emotions, because that’s when I first experienced what it really was. It was wonderful, we were liberated. But what will become of us today? We were young and inexperienced, and certainly, we would have no friends to support us. Then a new life was ahead of us. I had a middle-school knowledge, had done an internship as a tailor for nearly two years and knew a little bit about sewing. What would become of me? But, I was very happy to meet Mr Friedländer in Theresienstadt at the beginning of February 1945. We knew each other from Berlin, we had something in common to talk about. We experienced the emancipation together and were married in Theresienstadt in June, the day before the next priest left Theresienstadt. We were married for 52 times. It was my great joy. Speaking of that time of emancipation with mingled emotions, could you have imagined staying in Germany, the state of the offenders, at that time? Not at the moment. Surely not. Particularly for my father, who in no way wanted to stay in Germany, despite great specialized options for him. But also, my thoughts about Germany were relatively distinct, since I had even met good Germans. When people in New York after learned about my decision to go back to Berlin, they asked me: how can you go back to the culprits? I answered, these are not the offenders I am going to. They are the third, fifth century. They have nothing to do with what happened. I am notHitler, I esteem people. So how can I hold them responsible for what happened? They are the third or fourth century born after, that wouldn’t be honest. What about European obligation — doesn’t that even apply to the third and fourth years? What happened was not right and that gives your creation the feeling we have to complete things differently. That’s people and I’m thankful for that. Subscribe to me! Think what I am telling you. Isn’t it a great experience for you that I don’t blame you for things you didn’t do anything about? Isn’t it people? I look at you as human beings, and never for what has been done, and I hope that you have the power to support and make sure it never happens again. Is there also things like frustration that often arises in you, specifically here in Germany? My husband and I both experienced the same thing, and if we didn’t think well, we knew why. We didn’t have to respond. What great would it have done us to be unhappy? We wanted to try and make a lifestyle for both of us that would take us happiness and a certain protection. That was our wish in the US. We also didn’t talk about it with our companions who had managed to escape Germany in moment, because almost everyone had friends who had perished. Why may we make it even harder for them? I truly just experienced great things from the first day in Germany, from the first studying on, after my book was published in 2008. I gave observations in a lot of European places, in schools, churches or businesses, and people understood me and were glad to me for talking about it, despite all that happened. It is my life now, and I speak for those who can no longer perform it. It has given me a living. I’ve turned 101 years older, and I feel gratitude, specifically for the fact that my head is also think entirely plainly, and I can also talk to you about what has happened, with the hope that it will never happen again — for all of you!
