A memorial service was held in Berlin on Sunday to mark the first anniversary of the death of Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer, just days after the city renamed a square in her memory.
"A year ago, we had to say goodbye. We are still in mourning. We miss Margot Friedländer," said Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner at the memorial service at the Jewish cemetery in Weissensee, where Friedländer is buried. The honorary citizen of Berlin died on May 9, 2025, at the age of 103.
"Margot Friedländer was a very special personality, a unique person," said Wegner. She had a soft voice, he noted, but her message was loud and clear. "Her courage in the face of life, her confidence, was unique."
Since Thursday, the square in front of the Berlin House of Representatives has borne Friedländer’s name. "This is exactly the right place," said Wegner, "in the very heart of democracy."
Friedländer was born in Berlin in 1921 and went into hiding in the city when the Nazis began persecuting Jews. She was captured and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
She moved to the US after the camp was freed by Allied forces at the end of World War II, but ultimately returned to Berlin in 2010, devoting much of her time to speaking to schoolchildren about the Holocaust.
