Died yesterday (Friday) in the evening at the age of 103 Margot Friedlenderone of the most well -known survivors of the Holocaust. She had returned to Germany after decades as an immigrant in New York to devote her life to raising young people about the crimes of the national socialists.

“I speak on behalf of those who did not succeed”she had stated in an interview on ARD public television a few weeks ago, and tonight she was to be honored with the Grand Cross of the Federal President’s Battalion. Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Her story became more widely known through documentaries and her memoirs and in recent decades has been repeatedly honored – and at a highest level, as by the former US president Joe Biden.

‘… Be people’

OR Margot Friedlender Born in a Jewish family in Berlin in 1921. Her mother and brother were murdered in his concentration camp Auschwitz and she was arrested and sent to his camp Terezenstad (Czech Terzin). She finally survived, as did her future husband, with whom she later went to the US.

In 2010, at the age of 88, Friedlender returned to Germany and was devoted to informing young people, especially in the context of the historical memory program that brought her name: “My mission is to say ‘Be people’. We are all the same. There is no Christian, Jewish, Muslim blood. There is only human blood »he used to say often. He visited countless schools and encouraged young and old “not to allow what happened then”. Her words, ‘Be people’they moved millions of people around the world. “By the end, he urged the defense of democracy – the memory alone is not enough.”reports the institution Margot Friedlender in his announcement.

He had not regretted returning to Berlin, even though friends and relatives in the US tried to persuade her. “I could never imagine I would go back to these pigs”her cousin was typically said in the documentary on the Margot Friedlender. “I came back to talk to you and stretch out your hand. Because I wanted to be the eyewitnesses of the time we can no longer be ourselves, ” He responded to anyone who expressed his question about his return to Germany.

Last summer it became a cover in German Vogue As a symbol of hope and a source of inspiration and talked once again about her “mission”: “I want to share my life with the younger generations and warn of rising far -right and anti -Semitism. To remind me of the importance of memory and humanity ‘, he said.

“OR Margot Friedlender She donated to our country the reconciliation – despite the Germans when they were new. “the federal president said Frank-Walter Steinmeier for her death while the president of the Bundestag Yulia Cleckner spoke about “A generous witness who touched people with her compassion”.

The Chancellor Friedrich Mertz described the Margot Friedlender as “One of the strongest voices of our time, for peaceful coexistence, against anti -Semitism and oblivion”. She trusted us her story, “It is our duty and obligation to continue it”the Chancellor added.