Margot Friedländer, one of the last living Jewish survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, has died at the age of 103, the Margot Friedländer Foundation announced on Friday.
Friedländer, who was born in Berlin in 1921, went into hiding in the city and was eventually sent to the Theriesenstadt concentration camp in 1944, in what was then Czechoslovakia. Her father, mother and brother were killed in Auschwitz.
She and her husband, whom she met in Theresienstadt, emigrated to the United States in 1946.
After he died, she started to visit Berlin in the 2000s and moved back permanently in 2010 at age 88. She had working tirelessly telling young people in Germany about the Nazi regime ever since.
“Hate is alien to me,” she once said.
The Margot Friedländer Foundation said Friedländer had fought for a better Germany.
“We pay tribute to her impressive life’s work with deep gratitude. Her example is our mission and our obligation.”
World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder said Friedländer was “a woman of unshakable moral courage, a survivor of unimaginable loss, and a voice of remembrance for generations.”
She did not only survive the Holocaust, “she chose to bear witness,” he said.
“Until her final days, she stood as a symbol of resilience and humanity. Her words reached hearts. Her presence changed lives.”
Lauder said her death was a loss for Jewish people, for Germany and “for all those who believe in memory and moral responsibility.”
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his condolences and said he had lost a great friend.
He said she gave Germany reconciliation, despite what she had endured in her life. Steinmeier said the country could not be grateful enough for her gift.
Steinmeier had been due to honour Friedländer with a state medal on Friday.
German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, praised Friedländer for speaking up for peaceful coexistence and against anti-Semitism.
“She entrusted us with her story. It is our task and our duty to pass it on,” Merz wrote on X.
Friedländer received a lot of recognition in Germany – a lovable, sprightly old lady who could tell such impressive stories. A prize for school projects on the Holocaust and today’s culture of remembrance bears her name.
In June 2018, at the age of 96, she was named an honorary citizen of Berlin. To mark her 100th birthday, a book and an illustrated biography were published.
In 2023, public broadcaster ZDF produced a docudrama about her, coinciding with the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the horrific 1938 pogrom carried out by the Nazis.
The National Socialists launched a nationwide wave of terror against Jews on the night of November 9 to 10, 1938. According to the German Historical Museum, more than 1,300 people were killed, 1,400 synagogues were destroyed or damaged, 7,000 shops were attacked and 30,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps.
Even at 102, Friedländer remained active in public life, attending events such as a reception with Steinmeier.
Last month, she delivered the keynote speech at the Federal Press Ball in Berlin.
Friedländer spoke to schoolchildren and at official memorial ceremonies, including at the European Parliament in Brussels at the age of 100.
In 2011, she was awarded Germany’s highest civilian honour – the Order of Merit – given for outstanding service to the nation.
One of her enduring messages was simple yet powerful: “We cannot change what happened, but it must never happen again.”
