- Women Mayors writers
- May 10
- 4 min read
Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer has died in Berlin, aged 103
“There is no Christian, Muslim or Jewish blood. There is only human blood.”
Margot Friedländer, wearing her mother’s amber necklace, and as a 21-year-old. She kept the yellow star (Judenstern) the Nazis forced her to wear.
May 2024: Margot Friedländer has died aged 103. Towards the end, the 103-year-old seemed very frail and fragile, but always mentally alert. Even when she was over 100 years old, the Holocaust survivor spoke to school classes, admonished at commemorative events - kindly, patiently, persistently. She spoke about her family, who were murdered by the Nazis, and about her fate in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. But her main message was: “Be human”.’
Margot Friedländer was born Margot Bendheim in Berlin in 1921. After leaving school, she worked as an apprentice in a tailor's shop. Her family's efforts to emigrate to the USA were unsuccessful.
Margot always had a clear memory of Hitler's rise to power. “I was less than twelve years old at the time and perhaps still had a small hope that it would all blow over. In 1935, my aunt and uncle emigrated to Brazil. My father said, “Hitler won't last. I'm not giving up my business, and I'm staying.” “You can always come back,” was all my uncle said. In 1939, my father was given a passport because he had to introduce the new ‘Aryan’ owner of his shop to foreign suppliers. My parents were already divorced by then. My father travelled abroad in 1939, and we never saw him again."
In January 1943, the Gestapo (the Nazi secret police) arrested Margot's brother, Ralph. Her mother, who was not at home at the time, then turned herself in. “She didn't want to leave Ralph alone.”
Being left without family, Margot then lived in hiding for a year. She underwent a nose operation to avoid looking too Jewish and dyed her hair red. She wore a chain with a cross around her neck. She was able to escape the Gestapo three times, and time and time again, strangers hid her. “These people did something that could have cost them their lives, but they didn't hesitate. I am infinitely grateful for that.” What Margot did not know, however, was that there were Jews who were paid by the Nazis to betray other Jews to save their own lives. “I was eventually caught by Jewish snatchers.” She was deported to the concentration camp Theresienstadt.
Towards the end of the war, in the confusion of the final days, she saw the misery of the people coming out of Auschwitz. She realised that she would never see her mother and brother again. She and her husband, Adolf Friedländer, went to the United States, where she worked in a clothing store and as a travel agent. He was by her side for more than 50 years. "We both had the same experience, the same pain, we didn't need to talk about it," she said later. Her husband died in 1997.
In 2003, Margot Friedländer returned to her hometown of Berlin for the first time. The Berlin Senate had invited her, and she went with the filmmaker Thomas Halaczinsky. He made the film 'Don't Call It Heimweh' with her. She said that from the very first day, she felt that this was her home again. She moved back to Berlin when she was 88.
In the years after her return to Berlin, Margot spoke out against inhumanity. She visited schools and universities and talked to people from all walks of life, and people from all over the world. She repeatedly emphasised that human rights are universal. They apply to everyone. Especially now, when in Germany and many other countries, attempts are being made to separate people according to origin, religion and gender, we must honour human commonalities. Margot Friedländer said, “There is no Christian, Muslim or Jewish blood. There is only human blood.”
Berlin made her an honorary citizen, and she received the Federal Cross of Merit for her commitment in 2011. "You have extended a hand of reconciliation to which no one is entitled," said the then Federal President Christian Wulff. The belated recognition did her good. "I have had good experiences with parents, adults, children and pupils,’ she said, ‘with people."
Germany's current President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who had met Margot Friedländer as recently as April 2025, said we bow our heads to Margot Friedländer, this wonderful German Jew from Berlin. "She gave our country the gift of reconciliation, despite everything the Germans did to her as a young person. We cannot be grateful enough for this gift."
Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner has also paid tribute to the memory work of Margot Friedländer. "Her work against forgetting, her commitment in schools and universities and her talks with young people will also be remembered. We will never forget Margot Friedländer, and we will honour her memory. Friedländer urged people not to forget. She showed us what humanity is."
In recent years, Margot Friedländer viewed events in present-day Germany and also in America, the country that offered her a home in 1946, with great concern. When politicians from the German far-right scene refer to the Nazi era as a blip in German history, she shudders: “The frightening thing is that people like them and anti-Semitism have always co-existed. Unfortunately, I can't predict anything for the future. I can only tell what happened and how I feel. I am very worried that something could happen again, and I say I warn you against it.”
Margot Friedländer is also troubled by the division in American society. “I have many friends and relatives there. They are afraid.” In 2024, US President Joe Biden wrote to her, expressing his admiration for her strength and commitment to sharing her memories with young people across the world.
Sources:
• Jüdisches Museum Berlin (Jewish Museum in Berlin).
• Westdeutscher Rundfunk (Public service broadcaster)
• Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Swiss daily newspaper)
• Jüdische Allgemeine (German weekly newspaper)
• Berlin Senate
Follow