Margot Friedländer, a Holocaust survivor, has been awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. According to the “Spiegel” this is the highest honor that President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as the head of the German state, can bestow upon her. Steinmeier honors Friedländer’s “impressive life work and her tireless commitment as a witness to the crimes of National Socialism.”
Friedländer is 103 years old and was born in Berlin. She lost her entire family during the Holocaust, while she herself survived the concentration camp Theresienstadt. Friedländer and her later husband, who also survived the Nazi terror against Jews in the concentration camp Theresienstadt, immigrated to the USA. In 2010, Friedländer returned to Berlin from there. In 2023, she founded the Margot Friedländer Foundation to continue the work of witnesses and to award a prize named after her.
President Steinmeier is deeply impressed by Friedländer: “Her fate, her willingness to reconcile and her constant appeal for humanity and human dignity have made her a moral authority.