By International Desk
May 10, 2025
Margot Friedländer, a German-Jewish Holocaust survivor who endured the horrors of the Theresienstadt concentration camp and dedicated her later years to educating youth about the atrocities of Nazi persecution, passed away in Berlin on May 9, 2025, at the age of 103. Her death, announced by the Margot Friedländer Foundation, coincided with the 80th anniversary week of Nazi Germany’s surrender in World War II. While Luxembourg is not directly tied to her story, its historical context as a nation devastated by Nazi occupation—where only 36 of 3,500 Jews survived the Holocaust—echoes the broader tragedy Friedländer survived and spoke against. Her life, marked by resilience and a mission to combat antisemitism, leaves an indelible mark on global remembrance.
A Life Forged in Survival
Born Anni Margot Bendheim on November 5, 1921, in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, Friedländer grew up in a vibrant Jewish community. The rise of the Nazis shattered her world. In January 1943, her mother and younger brother, Ralph, were arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered alongside her father. Friedländer, then 21, went into hiding in Berlin, surviving through a false identity—dyeing her hair red and removing her mandatory yellow Star of David. Aided by an underground network of 16 non-Jewish Germans, she evaded capture until April 1944, when she was betrayed and deported to Theresienstadt in present-day Czech Republic.
Friedländer described Theresienstadt as “cruel,” witnessing the arrival of emaciated Auschwitz evacuees in early 1945, barely distinguishable as living or dead. She survived due to the camp’s liberation by the Soviet Army on May 8, 1945, just before the war’s end. At Theresienstadt, she reunited with Adolf Friedländer, a Jewish Cultural Association acquaintance, whom she married post-liberation. Her mother’s final words, relayed via a handbag left with a Jewish couple—“Try to make your life”—became her guiding mantra.
From Exile to Advocacy
In 1946, Friedländer and her husband emigrated to the United States, settling in New York. For decades, she lived quietly, raising a family while grappling with her past. Her husband, Adolf, passed away in 1997 at 87. In 2003, Friedländer returned to Berlin for the first time, invited by the city’s Senate for persecuted citizens. The visit, including a stop at her childhood home on Skalitzer Strasse, stirred a resolve to share her story. In 2010, at 88, she moved back to Berlin permanently, restoring her German citizenship and embarking on a mission to educate.
Friedländer spoke at schools, events, and the European Parliament, addressing the 2022 Holocaust Memorial Day in Brussels. Her talks, often to German youth, emphasized hope and responsibility: “My brother did not have a chance. But the young people today do.” She condemned modern antisemitism, notably criticizing COVID-19 protesters in 2022 for wearing yellow stars mimicking the Nazi-era Judenstern. Her 2008 autobiography, Try to Make Your Life, became a touchstone for remembrance, and she appeared in documentaries like Don’t Call It Heimweh (2004).
Honors and Impact
Friedländer’s advocacy earned her accolades, including the Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon (2011), the German Jewish History Award (2018), and Berlin’s Honorary Citizenship (2018). The Schwarzkopf Foundation established the Margot Friedländer Prize in 2014 to honor youth fighting antisemitism. In 2024, at 102, she graced Vogue Germany’s cover, condemning the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party’s rise, saying, “I am appalled.” Posts on X reflected her impact, with users like @dwnews quoting her plea: “Don’t let this happen again!” and @littlecocomade1 praising her kindness.
Luxembourg’s Holocaust Echo
While Friedländer’s story is rooted in Berlin and Theresienstadt, Luxembourg’s Holocaust history provides a parallel tragedy. Before World War II, Luxembourg housed 3,500 Jews, many recent refugees from Eastern Europe and Germany. Nazi occupation in May 1940 introduced the Nuremberg Race Laws, and by October 1941, emigration was banned. Of the 800 Jews interned at Fuenfbrunnen transit camp, most were deported to ghettos like Łódź or camps like Auschwitz and Theresienstadt. Only 36 survived. This devastation, documented by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, underscores the Europe-wide genocide Friedländer survived and spoke against.
A Lasting Legacy
Friedländer’s death, on the eve of receiving another German Order of Merit, marks the loss of one of the last living witnesses to the Shoah, the Hebrew term for the Holocaust that she championed. Her foundation and the Margot Friedländer Prize ensure her message endures, urging vigilance against hatred. As Berlin mourns, her words resonate: “I would like you to be the witnesses we can’t be for much longer.” For those seeking to honor her, resources on grok.com or the X app offer tributes and insights into her life. Friedländer’s story—beyond Berlin, Luxembourg, or any single place—reminds the world to remember, resist, and rebuild.
Sources: AP News, Wikipedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, posts on X
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.”
The photo shows Margot Friedländer on February 26, 2025 before the dignity of an honorary citizen of Berlin by the Governing Mayor to the publisher Friede Springer in the ballroom of the Red City Hall. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
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 by her, “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.
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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.
From hidden to hiding place
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”, who found other Jews for the Nazis at the time. 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.
“Don’t call it homesickness”
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.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier hugged Margot Friedlander when she appeared in a conversation with the title “War in the Middle East: for a peaceful coexistence in Germany” on November 8, 2023 in the Presidential Palace Bellevue in Berlin. Photo: AFP
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 the “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.”
One of the last photos of Margot Friedländer shows her on May 7, 2025 at an event in Berlin. Photo: Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa
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 once said.
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.
A stumbling block for Margot Bendheim, which is called Margot Friedländer after her marriage, is incorporated into the ground in front of the Skalitzer Straße 32 house in Kreuzberg. There she lived with her family in 1943. Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa
“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.”
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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”.