Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer
There is no Christian, Muslim or Jewish blood. There is only human blood
Margot Friedländer in 2024 in her Berlin apartment and the women's barracks in the Nazi ghetto Theresienstadt in 1943
November 2024: There are still around 240,000 Holocaust survivors in the world. One of them is Margot Friedländer, who celebrated her 103rd birthday this month. On this occasion, she was awarded the Golden Bambi, the German Oscar. She received the award for the courage that has characterised her entire life. Even today, at her age, she speaks out against inhumanity. She visits schools and universities and talks to people from all walks of life, to people from all over the world. She repeatedly emphasises 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.’
Margot Friedländer was born Margot Bendheim in Berlin in 1921. After finishing school, she worked as an apprentice in a tailor's shop. Her family's efforts to emigrate to the USA were unsuccessful. From 1940, Margot had to perform forced labour. After her parents separated, she lived with her mother and younger brother Ralph. They planned to flee in 1943, but Ralph was arrested by the Gestapo. The mother then handed herself into the Gestapo and was deported to Auschwitz with her son and murdered. She left her daughter a message: ‘Try to make a life for yourself’. The 21-year-old went into hiding, was detained by Greifers / Snatchers (Jews that were paid by the Nazis to catch fellow Jews) in 1944 and deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp. She was the only family member to survive the camp. Margot went to the USA in 1946 with her husband, Adolph Friedländer, whom she knew from Berlin and whom she met again in Theresienstadt. She has lived in Berlin again since 2010. (1)
Every 9 November, the world remembers the pogrom night of 1938 (Kristallnacht), and Margot Friedländer still recalls the day after. In an interview, she described what she experienced the morning following the night of destruction. (2)
“I came out of the flat and immediately realised that there were fewer people on the street than normal. I was on my way to work. There was a funny smell in the air. I soon saw the first shops with uniformed people standing outside and broken shop windows. And I also saw people taking things from the shops and what was already on the street. As much as they could carry.”
“I was only gone for ten or 15 minutes and then returned home. When I left, it was still very quiet. And when I came back, everyone knew that the synagogues were on fire, even though we didn't have a radio or a telephone. My mum and my brother were waiting for me and were very devastated. They already knew what was going on. My parents were divorced, and we were naturally worried about where my father was. It took days for him to get in touch. He had gone into hiding. It was very tragic.”
Margot Friedländer also remembers 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 the foreign suppliers. My parents were already divorced by then. My father travelled abroad in 1939, and we never saw him again.’ (3)
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 Friedländer 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 caught by Jewish snatchers.”
Margot Friedländer now views 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-wing 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.” (4) American 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:
1) Jüdisches Museum Berlin (Jewish Museum in Berlin).
2) Westdeutscher Rundfunk (Public service broadcaster)
3) Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Swiss daily newspaper)
4) Margot Friedländer spoke before the election of Donald Trump on 5 November 2024