I’m not an unhappy person, I’m grateful really.
I’ve had four different lives.
A wonderful childhood and a few
beautiful years of adolescence, but too short.
Several extremely difficult years, where I went through a lot.
And then marriage.
And then these ten, eleven years. Totally different.
Today Margot Friedländer lives in Berlin again.
She was born here in 1921 into a Jewish family.
They were persecuted after the Nazis came to power in 1933.
Her parents were divorced.
Her mother was not able to flee Germany.
Just before she was about to go into hiding with her children,
Margot’s younger brother Ralf was arrested.
Hoping to help her son,
her mother turned herself in to the authorities.
Margot went into hiding in Berlin.
After 13 months she was caught and deported
to Theresienstadt concentration camp.
She survived.
Her mother, brother, father and
her entire family were murdered in Auschwitz.
Shortly after the liberation of Theresienstadt,
and before she left, she married Adolf Friedländer,
a man she knew from Berlin and whose family
had also been murdered in Auschwitz.
They emigrated to America in 1946.
I never really forgave America,
because when I had needed America they didn’t let me in.
By the time I came to America
I was free and could have stayed here anyway.
It was my own free will.
If I could have come to America with
my mother I might have been very happy.
In 2003 she returned to Berlin for the first time
in 57 years to participate in a documentary.
Some of it had to be shot in Berlin.
That was what changed my life.
The moment I arrived in this city where my roots are,
I realized what it meant to me.
That was the essence of it.
One year later, in 2005, the documentary was
officially screened here at the Jewish Film Festival.
And then I began to write my book.
One year later, the publisher Rowohlt heard about it.
They said they wanted to publish it but
that I should work with a co-author.
That was 2006.
I met Malin Schwerdtfeger that December
and worked with her for one year.
I was in America, and she was in Berlin.
Her book, Try to Make your Life, was published in 2008.
Since then she has been doing regular readings from it,
sometimes several a week.
I stand in front of the neighbor’s building.
In a moment I will see my mother. It’s getting darker.
The Jewish couple is waiting at the lit up window,
I can recognize their silhouettes behind the curtains.
I look for my mother’s familiar form.
But she’s not there. The lady opens the door for me.
“Where is she?” I ask, out of breath.
The woman waits until I’m inside. Then she shuts the door.
“She left.” At first, I don’t understand.
Did I get here too late? Is she out looking for me?
“She left a message for you.”
I am waiting for the woman to hand me something,
but she just stands there.
I look for a slip of paper in her hand,
something my mother would have written down for me.
“I’m supposed to give you a message.”
Then she tells me what my mother can no longer tell me herself
“I have decided to go to the police.
I am going with Ralph, wherever that may be. Try to make your life.”
The only things she still has from her mother are
this amber necklace and a small address book.
In 2008, when I was still on the plane on
my way back to America, I asked myself
“What are you really doing in New York?
There’s so much more you can do in Germany, in Berlin.”
In 2009 she decided to leave New York and return to Berlin for good.
At 88 years old, Margot Friedländer has been
repatriated and is back for good.
Today, she officially became a German citizen again.
Interior Minister Körting presented her wlith the certificate.
Senator Körting, I should probably say
a few words after receiving this document.
I think words of thanks are expected.
I can’t do that, because you have simply returned
what belonged to me in the first place,
what was taken away from me many decades ago.
Back then, they left the roots of a young sapling to dry out.
I haven’t come back to Germany.
I’ve come to my friends. Thank you all.
I’m often asked if I miss America. I don’t at all.
I know I was in America for many years.
But I don’t really feel like I lived there for 64 years.
Friends say to It feels like you were here the whole time.
I have that same strange feeling. I’m totally here.
One of her greatest objectives is to tell her story to young people ?
in schools, church communities and adult education centers.
The book I use for readings, this is what it looks like now.
Here you can see the star.
I received the Einhard Prize for the
book in 2009, for best autobiography.
So I was invited to Berlin again to do readings.
I noticed how silent these young people were, these school students,
and how, as soon as I started to speak, they wanted to know,
What’s next, what’s next? What is this woman’s life?
What did she live through? And I always said,
it’s for you, so that what we lived through never happens again.
But I don’t blame any of you.
Because we can’t forget that in those years their parents and
grandparents were cheering it all on.
Of course I knew that.
But here I was speaking to the third or fourth generation,
who had nothing to do with it.
The readings have become too exhausting for her,
so Friedländer has started using a video recording.
We left the camp on Iranische Strasse in a truck, out of Berlin.
The doors closed behind us.
From that moment on everything passed me by like a nightmare
you immediately forget as soon as you wake up
but which still leaves an indelible terror behind.
My soul was not in my body in this truck on its way to Theresienstadt.
Theresienstadt was like a large-scale study, an experiment.
One question ruled our lives.
“How much can a person take?”
Theresienstadt was an in-between place.
Neither life nor death. Death waited for us in the camps in the East.
In the ghetto there was hunger, filth and cramped conditions.
It was everyone for themselves.
I longed for some humanity, some closeness.
It was difficult for me too, to allow those things in.
Everyone existed in a kind of isolation.
Theresienstadt was a vacuum.
A place devoid of air and light, without time.
After the readings, the young people are curious to know more.
I made it.
I feel like I can do something for those who didn’t make it.
I have a duty to speak for those who can no longer speak.
We would like to tell you that we won’t forget you
and that we will pass everything
we’ve learned on to the next generations.
That gives me strength.
Strength to do this because you are listening to me.
Because I believe that my words are being heard well.
What I’m telling you might not get through to all of you
but if I can reach two, or three, or
four of you, I’ve achieved something.
Because it’s for you. What can I do after all?
Nothing, I don’t have any children. You will have children, families.
Be smart, make a good life for yourselves, learn things.
Because knowledge really is everything.
Lilia, what a lovely name. All the best.
Strangers have been good to me.
Strangers who had nothing to do with me and my life.
I’ll never forget that year and three months I spent
getting to know people in Berlin who had done something extraordinary.
I’ll never forget that. That’s actually
how I discovered true humanity really.
And I’d like to give some of that back.
Maybe I don’t really realize,
although really I do, I’ve done a lot.
When I look in this folder I see all the words of thanks in there.
Hundreds and hundreds of them. They’re not for nothing.
These are all expressions of gratitude.
Here someone writes,
We didn’t know how bad it was back then.
You’ve made me see it all much more clearly.
People have written letters like that.
The interesting thing is how they
suddenly really learn what was going on.
Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer
is one of ten Berliners?
?a tour guide is now offering a Margot Friedländer tour.
For 66 years, Berlin was little more
than a memory for Margot Friedländer.
The place the Nazis once took her prisoner.
? Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer was
awarded for her outstanding dedication in Germany?
? awarded honorary citizenship, the
highest accolade of the state of Berlin.
Both were persecuted by the Nazi regime
and hidden by Berliners for years.
Both are still active today.
They remind us of the atrocities and criticize antisemitism and racism.
Hitler, Göring and Goebbels were also honorary citizens.
They’d turn in their graves now, if they had graves.
A Jew, Jews who they didn’t consider human,
who they wanted to kill, and almost managed to.
Today a Jewish woman, two even, have become honorary citizens.
With her honorary citizenship,
Friedländer is now among the great names in Berlin’s history.
Her portrait will now hang in the gallery of
eminent figures in Berlin’s House of Representatives.
The President of the Berlin House of Representatives,
Ralf Wieland, shows her how
different and varied the portraits are.
A very different style here, and that one of Dietrich Genscher is
almost realistic. Helmut Schmidt with his ever-present cigarettes
and the snuff tobacco he always used.
Look at that style!
Ah, the astronauts.
Yes there’s a list of honorary citizens from East Germany.
This is of Sigmund Jähn and Valery Bykovsky.
That’s her look.
Berlin artist Stephanie von Dallwitz is working on
a number of sketches for the official portrait.
Here the eye is a bit more complete than a freshly sketched eye.
That’s just the undercoat.
When Margot asked me if I would paint her portrait
for the House of Representatives?
At first I was overwhelmed and surprised because Margot put?
so much trust in me, you can’t say no to that.
Mrs Friedländer, thank you for deciding to live among us again.
With your work for democratic values,
your contribution towards keeping memories alive and
your work with children and young people,
you have done a lot of good for our city.
Honorary citizenship is the highest accolade
we can award here in Berlin.
That’s why I’m very happy about something you said recently
in conversation with school students when you visited us in the House.
I’m a true Berliner and I love my city.
In 2019, Friedländer became
patron of Article 1 of the German Constitution - the Grundgesetz.
?the Basic Law.
Everyone has the right, ?
? to express?
their opinion.
Whether its gender,
Nation or background.
Or faith.
No one should be deprived or favored.
Human dignity is?
Invi- olable.
Human dignity is?
?invi- olable.
So I’m very happy that you, Margot Friedländer,
someone who reminds us why the constitution came to be,
are accepting this talisman today in the
spirit of diversity and difference.
? A ceremony was held by the
German Integration Foundation to mark
the 70th anniversary of the constitution.
Alongside Chancellor Merkel was
Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer.
She received an award for her outstanding integration work.
Merkel thanked the 97 year old,
who has been telling the story of her life under
the Nazi regime in schools for years.
She also became patron of Article 1 of the constitution ?
human dignity is inviolable.
I’m very touched of course, I don’t really know what to say.
I did write a speech, but first I’d just like to say thank you.
For me, it’s incredible just to experience this.
She wrote the book of interviews “Ich tue es für euch” ?
I do it for you ?
together the antisemitism representative of the state of
North Rhine-Westphalia ? Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.
It’s also meant as a warning to
people to learn the lessons of history.
Antisemitism is not the only thing. They’re against people.
Whether it’s Jews or foreigners or
people with other opinions, they’re just?
they want everyone to be like them.
As a witness, as a person with a mission,
Margot Friedländer motivates young people.
She puts her heart into it, she’s very authentic.
And I think all of that makes her a great supporter of prevention,
which is the most important thing when
it comes to dealing with and addressing antisemitism.
Because I have Margot around me every day in
some form and I’m dealing with her so closely,
I feel like I’m always with her.
It wasn’t possible for her to come here to the studio,
because of the stairs and ?
well I have to add that this building, Fasanenstrasse number 70,
is a very poignant place.
Because this was her last hiding place
before she was taken to Theresienstadt.
And that’s a twist of fate that always brings me to tears.
When I climb these four floors or when I enter the stairwell,
I think of Margot with each step and of her history,
what she experienced here with the wonderful Camplair family.
She couldn’t remember which floor she lived on,
but she has a postcard she sent to
the Camplairs from Theresienstadt.
I saw it, well she showed it to me.
It said Camplair Family, Fasanenstrasse 70, 2nd floor.
So she was on the second floor? two floors below me.
That’s what I looked like, for a long time, there I am with my cross.
That was when I was in hiding.
Look how beautiful my hair was.
Your hair is still beautiful.
I asked you where you got this cross.
And you said someone gave it to you who brought
you into hiding and I was so astonished that it wasn’t silver,
it was a very simple cord.
It’s a cord, I didn’t have any money for a chain. It was crochet!
It’s so beautiful.
In this photo - and on the original - it looks like silver.
When I saw you in this setting I could sense exactly how you felt.
Do you recognize yourself?
Oh yes!
I visit Max once or twice every summer.
He has a beautiful house right on the water and a little motor boat.
I usually bring something with me, half a chicken,
or a whole one, depending on how many people are there.
And he brings coffee and cake to the garden and then
we get into the boat for an hour or so.
I’m even allowed to drive it, I love doing that.
We go as far as Potsdam, under the bridges and onto
Lake Wannsee where we look at the sailing boats and other boats.
In spring 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic brought
public life in Germany to a standstill,
Friedländer had to slow down too.
But at 99 she was online to present the Margot Friedländer Award,
which is bestowed on school projects that keep alive
the memory of the Nazi era terrors?.
So we’re all sitting in very different constellations
in front of our screens, in so many places.
And some of you are together, some of you are alone.
I’m just happy it’s working out.
My name is ? My name is?
With the support of survivors and volunteers,
the association presents readings,
stories and contemporary witness statements to the public.
Why did you have to get on the train?
I’d like to thank you again.
I think it’s great that you’re doing this.
It’s very close to my heart.
It has become my mission.
Today, at 99, I’m very eager for you to continue the work ?
so that it won’t be forgotten.
I think we can take off our masks.
One year later, she can start working again.
This time outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel will
give the speech in honor of the prize winners.
You do this because you believe that it’s
extremely important to motivate young people to turn
their backs on exclusion, violation, racism,
antisemitism and all forms of hostility towards other groups.
This work gives very special significance to
the award named after Margot Friedländer.
And I’m delighted to see the interest this award is
attracting among young people all over Germany.
I sometimes think about what I might have done in life?
but I can’t imagine it. Probably a dressmaker. I don’t know.
I was very young when Hitler came to power.
It just wasn’t an option anymore.
We had to grow up too quickly.
Still until 1938 until the Kristallnacht,
we tried to more or less have a life.
It was too short. Those young years, 18 to 24,
when you meet someone and start dating.
Those years were missing, that real frivolity?
how should I put it? I regret not having that.
There was always some bitterness?
Let’s have a look in here?
That’s Hausvogteiplatz, where the monument is?
Here’s where Philipp Levin used to do his dressmaking.
?So I left school, I didn’t do my final year or school leaving exams.
I went to the fashion design school.
That’s where I met Philipp Levin.
He was very nice and I was very much in love.
I think that was the first and only time?
at least it was the first time I got drunk and?
The sewing hall of a Berlin clothing maker.
The seamstresses of the era were usually badly paid.
There was a huge table where the patterns were cut.
That would have been my world? that one.
Photographer Matthias Ziegler took portraits of Friedländer
for a photo book for her 100th birthday,
at locations that played an important role in her life.
Like here at Hausvogteiplatz, where her parents’ shop was.
He presents her as a modern woman who
has grown from her difficult past.
I always think my mother’s words shaped me.
But I only processed them in later years, when I was here?
“Try to make your life.” Now I’m making a life.
I’m doing something in my life.
Awareness of what Friedländer does is not confined to Germany.
When US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and
his German counterpart Heiko Maas arranged a
joint conference to commemorate the Holocaust,
once again it was Friedländer who was there to
remind people of the equality of all human beings.
I tell them that there’s no Christian, Jewish or Muslim blood.
That there’s only human blood. And here I am. And
still go at now almost 100 years to talk to people.
And this is for you. Thank you.
I always say I hope I can keep going for a while longer.
Life gave me the chance to do this, this mission.
That I don’t just live my own life,
but that I speak for those who can’t speak for themselves.
The witnesses of that era are gone.
New ways of remembering the Shoah must be found,
especially when racism and antisemitism are emerging
once again in society here in Germany.
As politicians, as society,
we can and we should all work to look back,
to reflect, to remember and to think about the future.
We have a huge responsibility to do our best here
when we follow this call to your memory.
And I very much hope, Mrs Friedländer,
that we will be worthy of your legacy.
I don’t imagine much will be left after I pass away.
Great people have done things.
But what I do is very, very little.
Maybe the current generation listening to me in
schools will talk about it to their children.
How far it will go I have no idea.
Because so many people keep saying they
don’t want to talk about it anymore.