102-Yr-Old Berlin Holocaust Survivor Warns: ‘This Is How It Started Then’

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Margot Friedländer, a 102-year-old Holocaust survivor, arrived at the German Film Awards ceremony to receive an award and warned about the rise of antisemitism in Germany, as well as throughout the world.

“When I returned (to Germany) 14 years ago I didn’t imagine that what is happening now would happen – this is how it started,” she told filmmakers and media.

Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer, age 102, expressed concerns against the resurgence of antisemitism in society as she receives the German Film Award:

“When I returned to Germany 14 years ago, I couldn’t have dreamed of what is happening now in society. That’s how it… pic.twitter.com/lWZyRs1IgU

— Adam Albilya – אדם אלביליה (@AdamAlbilya) May 5, 2024

She also said: “There are many storytellers in this room. You have a responsibility to harness the power of cinema to ensure that what happened never happens again.”

“I ask you to help us so that history does not repeat itself. Now it is in everyone’s hands. We cannot change what happened, but we can change what will happen. It must not happen again. I’m asking you – be human.”

She was answered with a resounding ovation.

Friedländer was born in 1921 in Berlin where she hid throughout the war. In 1943 her mother and brother were captured, and she herself was captured in mid-1944. She left behind a message for her daughter, which Margot brought into hiding: “Try to make your life.”

After being captured, she was sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and survived, the sole member of her immediate family to survive. After the Holocaust, she left Germany for the USA but returned to Germany in 2010 to engage in discussions with young Germans about her experiences during the Nazi regime.