Margot Friedländer

Margot Friedländer

Margot Friedländer was born Anni Margot Bendheim on November 5, 1921 in Berlin, Germany to Parents Artur Bendheim and Auguste, née Gross.

She had a Brother, Ralph, who was 4 years younger.

The Family tried to emigrate to the US, Brazil and China, but were refused Visas.

In 1942 her Father was murdered in a Concentration Camp.

On January 20, 1943 Ralph, who was 17 years old, was arrested by the Gestapo.

Margot’s Mother, left a note for Margot saying” Try to make your life” and then turned herself into the Gestapo so she could be with her Son.

They were both murdered at the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland.

Margot then went into hiding (dying her hair and even having surgery on her nose to look “less Jewish.”)

In the Spring of 1944 Margot was caught by Greifer “Grabbers” (Jews Collaborating with the Gestapo) and sent to the Theresienstadt/ Terezín Concentration Camp in German-Occupied Czechoslovakia.

At Theresienstadt she met Adolf Friedländer (whom she had known back in Berlin.)

Margot was liberated on May 8, 1945.

Margot and Adolf were married at Theresienstadt on June 26, 1946.

In 1946 they moved to the United States living in New York City where Margot worked as a Seamstress and a Travel Agent.

Adolf died in 1997.

In 2008 she wrote a book (“Try to Make Your Life”) about her experiences during the War.

In 2010 she moved back to Berlin, Germany and began talking about the Holocaust in German Schools.

On November 9, 2011, she was awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon from German  President Christian Wulff

In 2018, she was made an Honorary Citizen of Berlin.

On November 5, 2021, Margot celebrated her 100^th Birthday. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier congratulated her and described her as a "tireless fighter against hate, exclusion and far-right extremism"

On May 25, 2022, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Freie Universität Berlin.

On January 23, 2023, Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey presented her with the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 2023, she founded the Margot Friedländer Foundation to continue the work with contemporary witnesses and the awarding of the Margot Friedländer Prize.

Margot Friedländer continues to live in Berlin, Germany and is 102 years old.