Margot Friedländer, one of last Holocaust survivors, buried in Berlin
Friedländer died on Friday at the age of 103. Thanks to her tireless efforts to make sure the atrocities of the Holocaust are never forgotten, she became one of the best known survivors in her native Germany, dedicating the final decades of her life to campaigning for democracy and humanity.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and former leader Angela Merkel were among the high-profile guests in attendance at the funeral service in Berlin's Weissensee district.
Former chancellor Olaf Scholz, who passed on the baton to Merz last week, also attended the funeral service, along with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, parliamentary president Julia Klöckner and Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner.
Other prominent guests in attendance included Mathias Döpfner, chief executive of Springer, a Berlin-based multinational media company that owns outlets including Germany's Bild tabloid and US political news site Politico.
Fight for survival
Friedländer, who was born in Berlin in 1921, went into hiding in the city and was eventually sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1944, in what was then Czechoslovakia. Her father, mother and brother were killed at Auschwitz.
She and her husband, whom she met at Theresienstadt, emigrated to the United States in 1946.
After her husband died, she started to visit Berlin in the 2000s and moved back permanently in 2010 at age 88. She worked tirelessly to inform young people in Germany about the Nazi regime.
A prize for school projects on the Holocaust and today's culture of remembrance bears her name.
"Hate is alien to me," Friedländer once said. Her aim was to give a voice to the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
In June 2018, at the age of 96, she was named an honorary citizen of Berlin. To mark her 100th birthday, a book and an illustrated biography were published.
In 2011, she was awarded Germany's highest civilian honour - the Order of Merit - given for outstanding service to the nation.
Buried in honorary grave
Speakers paid tribute to Friedländer's extraordinary life story and achievements, with the rabbi of the Chabad Jewish community in Berlin, Yehuda Teichtal, describing her story as "one of strength and unbreakable humanity."
Her legacy teaches us to always try to make the world a more humane and better place, Teichtal added.
The chairman of the Jewish Community of Berlin, Gideon Joffe, recalled that despite losing her family to the Nazis, she "emerged as someone who wasn't looking to hate, but to remember, who wasn't looking to accuse, but to tell."
Leeor Engländer, a close friend of Friedländer's, said her famous call to "Be human!" had reached generations of Germans.
In his eulogy, he also noted the immense effort it took his friend to fight against indifference and frustration.
The trauma of her experiences during the Holocaust never left her, even though she always appeared positive on the outside, said Engländer, adding that Friedländer had been constantly plagued by thoughts of what had become of all the children who had been sent to the gas chambers.
Following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, she was horrified about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Germany. "This is how it started with us back then," she told her friend.
Following the service, Friedländer was buried in an honorary grave at Berlin's Weissensee cemetery, one of the largest Jewish graveyards in Europe.
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Just how much has DOGE exaggerated its numbers? Now we have receipts.
The Trump administration's claim that it is saving billions of dollars through DOGE-related cuts to federal contracts is drastically exaggerated, according to a new POLITICO analysis of public data and federal spending records. Through July, DOGE said it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion by canceling contracts, but of the $32.7 billion in actual claimed contract savings that POLITICO could verify, DOGE's savings over that period were closer to $1.4 billion. Despite the administration's claims, not a single one of those 1.4 billion dollars will lower the federal deficit unless Congress steps in. Instead, the money has been returned to agencies mandated by law to spend it. DOGE's latest figures on contract cuts ticked up to $54.2 billion in an update posted on Tuesday. POLITICO's findings come on top of months of scrutiny of DOGE's accounting, but the magnitude of DOGE's inflated savings claims has not been clear until now. Even so, President Donald Trump claimed hundreds of billions of dollars had already been used to reduce the federal deficit. The former head of DOGE, Elon Musk, initially promised the organization would reduce the deficit by $2 trillion. Many in Trump's Cabinet have also celebrated DOGE's efforts, including his secretaries of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture. DOGE's savings calculations are based on faulty math. The group uses the maximum spending possible under each contract as its baseline — meaning all money an agency could spend in future fiscal years. That amount can far exceed what the government has actually committed to pay out. Counting this 'ceiling value' gives a false picture of savings for taxpayers. 'That's the equivalent of basically taking out a credit card with a $20,000 credit limit, canceling it and then saying, 'I've just saved $20,000,'' said Jessica Tillipman, associate dean for government procurement law studies at George Washington University Law School. 'Anything that's been said publicly about [DOGE's] savings is meaningless.' The White House disagrees. DOGE has produced 'historic savings for the American people,' White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields wrote in an email in response to questions about DOGE's activities. DOGE's site, he said, provides up-to-date and accurate information. 'All numbers are rigorously scrubbed with agency procurement officials and updated in real time based on current information,' he said. DOGE's public list of records, or what it calls its "wall of receipts," says the site only represents a subset of the organization's overall savings. However, even among the sample of contracts it posted through July, roughly 40 percent of claimed savings could not be verified due to a lack of identifying information. DOGE claims it has saved $202 billion across the whole of the federal government from a combination of contract, lease and grant cancellations, workforce reductions, regulation clawbacks and more. To create savings from canceling contracts or other awards, DOGE has a few options: The president could formally claw back funds through Capitol Hill — a process where Congress cancels dollars it had previously appropriated, which it did this month for the first time in decades — or agencies could reclaim awarded funds for later use, an action known as a deobligation. To assess DOGE's actual savings so far from canceled contracts, POLITICO created a database of every traceable termination posted on DOGE's wall of receipts through July 26 that was at least one month old, about 10,100 contracts. Over this period, agencies have issued clawbacks, or deobligations, on less than 30 percent of those awards, recovering $1.4 billion in funds. Even if agencies immediately recovered all unspent funds from these 10,100 contracts, the total savings would amount to less than 40 percent of what DOGE has taken credit for. And agencies would still be on the hook to spend those dollars unless Congress or the president intervened, though some in the administration have said they could simply spend less. Roughly 2,400 cancellations on DOGE's termination list through July cannot be independently verified. Some of these cancellations were simply too recent to show up in public records, but most had their identifying information redacted by DOGE, which has often labeled those entries as 'unavailable for legal reasons.' DOGE's list is filled with exaggerated savings claims across the federal government. Some contracts included on DOGE's termination list have only been modified and not canceled; others have been removed from the list without explanation. Under the VA, for example, DOGE's page reported savings of $932 million from contracts canceled though June, including awards for a cancer registry, suicide prevention services and other health care support. Federal records show the VA recovered just $132 million from these awards, or less than 15 percent of what DOGE claimed, and that the VA reinstated the contract for suicide prevention support. These contracts were canceled because VA staff could perform the necessary work in-house, VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz wrote in an email. The VA, he said, has avoided up to $27 billion in costs from reviewing and downsizing thousands of contracts 'to ensure each one of them benefits Veterans and is a good use of taxpayers' money.' But the bulk of DOGE's actions show a different approach to savings entirely: lowering the ceiling value, which experts equate to an accounting trick. Lowering the ceiling decreases the potential price tag, but it's not guaranteed those dollars would have been spent to begin with. 'Voila! Half a billion saved. Time for lunch,' said one federal contracting lawyer with nearly four decades' experience advising government contractors who was granted anonymity to explain the practice freely. At most, for contracts where the ceiling exceeds the obligated amount, this kind of action amounts to avoiding future expenses that were never guaranteed to happen. In total, the administration removed $14 billion from contract ceilings on the traceable contracts on its 'wall of receipts' through July — a far cry from the $32.7 billion DOGE claimed to have saved from terminating them. In reality, the ultimate savings from terminations are nearly impossible to predict. DOGE's calculations, for instance, don't account for expenses that come from ending contracts prematurely, like payments for outstanding leases, subcontractors, or work already performed, which can add up quickly. 'There's no certainty because we haven't finished understanding termination costs of anything,' Tillipman said. That can take years to untangle. Until then, 'we don't know any of it,' she said, referring to savings. Plus, even drafting a contract costs money. 'You have spent multiple months or even years and many people's time getting to the best negotiated terms for the public's interest,' said Cristin Dorgelo, a former senior adviser in the Office of Management and Budget during the Biden administration. By law, agencies are still required to spend any funds Congress appropriated to them, including money they claw back from individual projects. They have some discretion to change how they spend it — perhaps to negotiate a better deal or to align it with the administration's priorities. Failing to spend appropriated dollars could violate the Impoundment Control Act, a law Trump's budget director, Russell Vought, has repeatedly said is unconstitutional. DOGE's actions will avoid future costs among the contracts it has terminated, experts agreed. But how much that ultimately amounts to and how much is returned to the Treasury, they said, lies somewhere in the middle of the numbers DOGE has published and what federal spending records show. One of DOGE's largest savings claims is from a canceled contract for a shelter in Pecos, Texas, to house unaccompanied migrant children. In a post on X in February, DOGE said the Department of Health and Human Services 'paid ~$18M/month' to keep the now-empty center open. Canceling the agreement, it said, would translate to more than $215 million in annual savings for taxpayers. By the time the contract was added to the DOGE termination list, that savings claim skyrocketed to $2.9 billion. DOGE's math was simple: It took the difference between the contract's $3.3 billion ceiling and the amount that had been formally awarded, or obligated — $428 million — and called it savings. But HHS and its Office of Refugee Resettlement were not on track to spend anywhere close to the contract's ceiling. That ceiling represented what it would cost the government to fund the Pecos center at full capacity — 3,000 children — for 365 days a year, for five years. If the center was not full, the government would pay less, according to four people familiar with the contract who were granted anonymity for fear of retribution. But the Pecos campus had been empty since February 2024. Instead, an $18 million price tag per month covered operating costs to keep the center ready to receive children with just two weeks' notice — an option the refugee resettlement office invoked at least twice during the lifetime of the contract. In total, the resettlement office had committed to pay no more than $428 million in rental, maintenance, security and IT expenses for the 80-acre campus through November, the four people said. At that time, the contract would be reviewed for renewal or cancellation. 'The bottom line is that the contract already had built in savings and efficiency into the way it was by the way it was structured,' one of the four people said. The most the government could save by canceling the contract for the Pecos campus before the November decision date would be about $126 million, or the amount the contractor, Family Endeavors, had yet to withdraw for upcoming monthly expenses. That's 4 percent of DOGE's $2.9 billion in claimed savings. Family Endeavors referred POLITICO to a written statement responding to the contract's cancellation that said the group's mission of 'serving vulnerable communities' is ongoing. To date, no funds have been returned to the Treasury from canceling this contract. ORR has not recalled funds because it anticipates future termination costs, according to the four people familiar with the contract. By the time that happens, actual savings from canceling this contract will be even less. 'The Biden Administration wasted more than $1.8 billion dollars on a facility to house illegal aliens, which has not been used in the last year,' HHS director of communications Andrew G. Nixon wrote in an email. 'Under Secretary [Robert F.] Kennedy's leadership, HHS is ensuring that taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely and not in support of illegal immigration.' The Interior Department, which administers the contract, referred questions to HHS. DOGE also claimed $166 million in savings from canceling a contract that plays a central role in the Energy Department's ability to keep household appliances like refrigerators and microwaves as efficient as possible. The Energy Department is required by law to set efficiency standards on roughly 70 products and appliances in order to reduce energy demand. Under an eight-year contract DOGE claims to have canceled, consulting firm Guidehouse Inc. provided the analysis used to set these standards. The Energy Department said the contract had not been canceled, but reduced, saying it achieved 60 percent 'in significant savings for the American taxpayer.' DOGE posted the contract on its list of terminations a few weeks before the agency repealed 20 appliance efficiency standards in May without any supporting evidence, said Emily Hammond, who served as deputy general counsel at the Energy Department during the Biden administration. 'DOE seems to be abnegating its duties,' Hammond said. 'Congress has required the agency to do its homework, and it doesn't appear to be doing that homework.' While DOGE claims $166 million in savings from terminating the agreement, federal spending records show the Energy Department has recalled $0 and removed just under $100 million from the contract's ceiling value. At most, that translates to $0 in savings to date and around $100 million in potentially avoided future costs. The irony, Hammond said, is that the efficiency standards Guidehouse helped to create save billions of dollars for consumers. 'The cost of developing them is quite small in contrast to the enormous impact,' Hammond said. The Energy Department has said dropping the regulations will lower costs for consumers, but efficiency standards saved households and businesses $105 billion in 2024, according to the department's own data — a far cry from DOGE's claimed $166 million in savings. Guidehouse declined to comment on the status of this contract. The future of the 'wall of receipts' and of the organization remains uncertain. Updates to DOGE's public accounting page have become more infrequent since Musk's exit in May. The page's three most recent updates represented the longest periods of silence since the site launched in February. It was stagnant for most of June and went nearly four weeks before posting new terminations in July. Another 17 days passed before its latest update in August. The same is true of Trump and Musk's relationship. After leaving DOGE, Musk declared war on Trump's megabill, which the president signed into law on the Fourth of July. The two took their breakup to X, lobbing insults on the world's stage. 'What the heck was the point of @DOGE if [Trump]'s just going to increase the debt by $5 trillion??,' Musk wrote on X in July, referring to the deficit increase. The law will increase the national debt by $3.4 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Now, Musk has committed to starting a third party with the same goal as DOGE: reduce government spending. POLITICO relied on public federal spending records from USA Spending and the Federal Procurement Data System as well as DOGE's list of terminated contracts available on its 'wall of receipts' for this report. (DOGE's website says its list of terminations are a subset of all canceled awards, but its ledger remains the only public log of its activity.) For this analysis, POLITICO excluded any contracts with a termination date within one month of its July 26 update, as DOGE cautions on its site that 'FPDS posting of the contract termination notices can have up to a 1 month lag.' POLITICO also excluded any contract terminations without a valid link to the Federal Procurement Data System, which contains additional identifying information POLITICO used to match each contract termination with federal spending records and was necessary for this analysis. When available, old versions of the DOGE data were used for USAID contract cancellations that were stripped of identifying information on the DOGE website due to 'legal reasons' without further explanation. Among contract terminations where savings could be verified, POLITICO compiled every transaction that has taken place between Jan. 20 and July 26, the date of DOGE's second-most recent update, in order to assess savings created by DOGE so far. 'Savings' represents dollars put back into the hands of agencies for later use. Agencies are required to spend dollars appropriated to them by Congress. Contracts added, removed or modified in DOGE's Aug. 12 data are not part of this analysis. Only 30 percent of the contracts POLITICO reviewed had deobligations, or money returned to the agency. The remainder either had no transaction activity during the Trump administration through July 26 or had only positive obligations during that period. Each contract has a few possible states: : POLITICO considered all deobligations reflective of DOGE's savings to date. In some cases, agencies added funds to a contract after a deobligation or reduction in ceiling value, effectively reducing the amount saved. POLITICO counted all activity on a contract after the first deobligation or reduction in ceiling value to show the net total of dollars saved or ceiling value reduced, respectively. : While DOGE says it has terminated the contract, there has been no change, negative or positive, to the amount the government has committed to spending. These contracts result in $0 in government savings to date by POLITICO's accounting. : There are many instances where contracts on DOGE's termination list showed additional spending during the search period and no deobligations. POLITICO did not count these dollars against DOGE's savings tally (unless that positive obligation happened after a negative obligation). This is to provide additional accounting for lags in DOGE actions appearing in public accounting records. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
Beto O'Rourke slams Trump admin, compares 2025 America to 1933 Germany
Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke remarked how he 'can only imagine the history books' that will be written about the people of 2025, and likened it to 1933 Germany on Wednesday. The Democrat appeared with Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., on the governor's podcast 'This is Gavin Newsom,' where he commented on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton investigating his Powered by People PAC for allegedly violating the law by assisting Texas state Democrats' travel out of the state to avoid a quorum during a redistricting standoff. Advertisement O'Rourke lauded the efforts of the Texas Democrats, calling them some of the 'very last lines of defense' of democracy. By contrast, he predicted Republicans, and by extension, the Trump administration, would be remembered similarly to the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. 'I can only imagine the history books written 100 years from now looking at the people of 2025,' O'Rourke said. 'It's the way, you know, you and I when we were in school, we're looking at the people in Germany in 1933. That guy's named chancellor in January of that year. In 53 days, he has destroyed German democracy.' Democrat Beto O'Rourke speaks alongside elected officials gathered for a rally ahead of a public hearing on the proposed congressional redistricting on Saturday, July 26, 2025 in Houston. Houston Chronicle via Getty Images Advertisement He continued, 'The parliament or the congress, their legislature, passed these enabling laws just like the Republicans are doing in Congress today that said anything you want, you go out and do it. And he goes from being this buffoonish, clownish thug who can barely hold power to the undisputed master and dictator of the German people. And I know this s— doesn't repeat, but it sure as hell rhymes.' O'Rourke has frequently compared President Donald Trump and his administration to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. In 2019, O'Rourke attacked Trump's family separation policy at the border and accused him of calling all immigrants an 'infestation.' 'Now, I might expect someone to describe another human being as an infestation in the Third Reich. I would not expect it in the United States of America,' O'Rourke said. O'Rourke made his comments on California Governor Gavin Newsom's 'This is Gavin Newsom' podcast. Youtube/This is Gavin Newsom Advertisement He defended his comments days later saying, 'Calling human beings an infestation is something that we might've expected to hear in Nazi Germany… Describing immigrants — who have a track record of committing violent crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans — as rapists and criminals. Seeking to ban all Muslims — all people of one religion — what other country on the face of the planet does that kind of thing?' In 2021, O'Rourke also warned the US could become Nazi Germany within 10 years despite Trump losing the 2020 election. Fox News Digital broke the news earlier that day that Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has called for the Justice Department to also investigate O'Rourke's PAC for potentially violating the law by raising funds for Texas Democrats fleeing the state.
Politico
10 hours ago
- Politico
Trump's time for choosing
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After the meeting, Latvia's Prime Minister Evika Siliņa — one of Kyiv's staunchest allies — told me Vance 'was very clear that it is up to Ukraine, and only Ukraine, to decide on its territory.' 'President Trump is an excellent and unique negotiator, so I believe he will aim for the best possible outcomes of the upcoming talks,' she said, while revealing Eastern European nations had warned the White House of their own experiences with Russian leaders, 'including that they often fail to keep promises in the long term.' Officials in Brussels and capitals across Europe are hoping a recent warming of relations between the Trump administration and NATO members will continue, and that his historic affinity with authoritarian strongmen is fading. As POLITICO's Felicia Schwartz and Eli Stokols first reported, the lead-up to the Alaska summit has seen an unprecedented uptick in Trump talking to, briefing and even strategizing with the EU, even if diplomats aren't certain he'll ultimately listen to them. Members of the bloc are also trying to prise him away from another long-time friend — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — as Europe hits a turning point in condemnation for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with growing international support for recognition of Palestinian statehood. 'Until last year the only European state that recognized Palestine was Sweden — now you even have players like France and the U.K. announcing an intention to recognize statehood,' said Mouin Rabbani, a Palestinian scholar and founder of the Jadaliyya news site. 'And a country like Germany saying it will suspend the export of weapons that could be used in Gaza. These things are unprecedented.' 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'If it's a national emergency we can do it without Congress, but we expect to be before Congress very quickly,' Trump said. — Trump warns Putin ahead of Alaska summit: President Donald Trump warned today that Russia would face 'very severe consequences' if he determines during Friday's summit with Vladimir Putin that the Russian leader is still not serious about ending the war with Ukraine. Trump, who did not specify what those consequences might be, has been reluctant to increase economic sanctions or tariffs on Russia despite his mounting frustration with Putin's intensifying attacks on Ukrainian cities, civilians and indifference to peace talks. Lowering expectations that the sit-down with Putin in Alaska would yield a breakthrough, Trump said that he's hopeful this initial meeting could lead to another that includes Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and, potentially, Trump. — Humanitarian groups cannot challenge Trump's impoundment of foreign aid grants, appeals court rules: A federal appeals court today rejected a bid by humanitarian groups to challenge the Trump administration's freeze on foreign aid grants. The ruling overturned a district judge's injunction that had directed the administration to restore the flow of the grants. In the split decision, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals didn't consider the merits of the aid groups' arguments that President Donald Trump illegally impounded congressionally appropriated funding. The majority instead vacated the injunction on procedural grounds. It found that the grantees couldn't bring a constitutional claim that hinged on an alleged violation of law. — Trump leaves his mark on the Kennedy Center Honors: President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced this year's Kennedy Center honorees — the first since his takeover of the institution — further molding Washington's iconic performing arts center in his image. Trump announced at a press event at the Center that he would host this year's annual event where musician George Strait, actor and comedian Michael Crawford, actor Sylvester Stallone, singer Gloria Gaynor and rock band KISS will all be awarded. It was an unusually public role for a president, who has focused early in his term on remaking the Kennedy Center. Earlier this year he fired multiple members of the board of the art institution and installed himself as chair. AROUND THE WORLD REAFFIRMING ALIGNMENT — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call to discuss their deepening ties and war efforts against Ukraine, the countries' state media said Wednesday, ahead of Putin's planned meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska. Putin during the call on Tuesday praised the 'bravery, heroism and self-sacrificing spirit' displayed by North Korean troops as they fought with Russian forces to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk border region, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said. Putin also shared with Kim information about his upcoming talks with Trump scheduled to take place Friday in Alaska, according to Russia's TASS news agency, citing the Kremlin. The North Korean reports did not mention the Trump meeting. TICKING CLOCK — Iran has less than three weeks to resume talks on its nuclear program or face the reimposition of sanctions, France, Germany and the U.K. said in a joint letter sent to the United Nations. The so-called E3 countries said they would trigger the 'snapback mechanism should no satisfactory solution be reached by the end of August 2025,' in a letter sent last week and shared by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot today. Snapback mechanisms were included in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — which the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from three years later under Donald Trump's first presidency. They allow for crippling sanctions against Tehran — which were lifted as part of the agreement — to be automatically reinstated if Iran violates key nuclear commitments. Nightly Number RADAR SWEEP A TRIP HOME — Decades after his parents fled Vietnam, Tony Ho Tran returned with them this year on the 50th anniversary of the war's end. As a kid, Tran formed an image of the country as he obsessed over Vietnam War movies and listened his parents' horror stories from their life before they immigrated. As an adult, he felt a shift in how Vietnamese people saw themselves, as Anthony Bourdain ate his way through Hanoi and shows like The Sympathizer entered the mainstream. Greeted with celebrations and National Liberation Front flags, Tran was confronted with a country that looked nothing like the Vietnam he thought he knew. He reflects on his recent family journey through Vietnam for Slate. Parting Image Jacqueline Munis contributed to this newsletter. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
