“It must never happen again": Margot Friedländer worked tirelessly against forgetting. (archive picture)
漏 dpa
Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer is dead. She died on Friday at the age of 103, as announced by the Margot Friedländer Foundation in Berlin. “With her death, Germany has lost an important voice in contemporary history,” the foundation said.
Friedländer, who came from a Jewish family and was persecuted by the National Socialists, returned to Germany in old age after six decades as an emigrant in New York. Since then, she worked tirelessly against forgetting. The younger generation was particularly close to her heart. She regularly told her story in schools.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: “The news of Margot Friedländer's death fills me with deep sadness. 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.” At Platform X, Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) called Friedländer “one of the strongest voices of our time: for peaceful coexistence, against anti-Semitism and forgetting”.
Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner has paid tribute to the remembrance work of Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer, who died at the age of 103. Wegner explained on Platform X that her work against forgetting, her commitment in schools and universities and Friedländer's talks with young people would remain unforgotten: “We will never forget Margot Friedländer and will keep her in honorable memory.” Friedländer reminded people not to forget. “She showed us what humanity means.”