(JTA) — Margot Friedlander, a Holocaust survivor who grew prominent in Germany after returning from the United States decades after surviving the Holocaust, has died at 103.
The Margot Friedlander Foundation announced her death on Friday, just weeks after opening applications for a 25,000 euro prize to recognize efforts to fight antisemitism and promote democracy. Friedlander was known for her concern about the rise of the political far right in Germany, as well as her impeccable style and the mantra she promoted: “Be human.”
Margot Friedlander's story of survival
Friedlander had appeared less than two days before her death at Berlin’s commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the rule of the Nazi Party. There, she read from her story, as she had countless times to student groups, public gatherings and public officials.
“Until her final days, she stood as a symbol of resilience and humanity. Her words reached hearts. Her presence changed lives,” Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said in a statement. “This is a profound loss for the Jewish people, for Germany, and for all those who believe in memory and moral responsibility.”
Friedländer was born and raised in Berlin and hid there after the Nazis rose to power and began deporting and murdering Jews. She was apprehended in April 1944 and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she remained until its liberation a year later. Her entire family had been murdered.
Friedländer and her husband, whom she met in Theresienstadt, moved to New York City, where they lived an unassuming life in Queens. But after her husband’s death in 1997, she began writing about her Holocaust experience, ultimately catching the eye of a filmmaker who brought her to Germany over the course of making a documentary about her.
The trip — which Friedländer had once sworn never to make — changed her life. She moved back permanently in 2010, at age 89, and quickly became a local celebrity, according to a Forward profile that appeared three years after her arrival. She made hundreds if not thousands of appearances to tell her story, taking center stage in a country haunted by its Holocaust history.
In 2023, she met with then-Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff during his visit to Berlin. She also presented a prize to Guy Nattiv and Helen Mirren, the director and star of “Golda,” the biopic about Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Last year, according to a Vogue Germany cover story, “she was invited to a member of the Bundestag’s party at Soho House and celebrated until the lights came back on.” That fall, she met with US President Joe Biden in Berlin.
“Margot Friedländer, you are a voice of conscience and healing,” Biden said, according to a White House transcript. “I’m actually honored to be in your presence, for real.”
In an interview last year, Friedlander was told that many people’s eyes light up hearing her name. Asked what makes her eyes light up, she offered an immediate answer: “That it seems like I achieved something.”
