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Korea Herald
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
German Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer dies at age 103
BERLIN (AP) — Margot Friedlaender, a German Jew who survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp and became a high-profile witness to Nazi persecution in her final years, died Friday. She was 103. Her death was announced by the Margot Friedlaender Foundation in Berlin on its website. Details about where she died, as well as the cause of death, were not immediately made public. She died the week of the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender in World War II. After spending much of her life in the United States, Friedlaender returned to live in the German capital in her 80s. She was honored with Germany's highest decoration and with a statue at Berlin's City Hall. "What I do gives me my strength and probably also my energy, because I speak for those who can no longer speak," Friedlaender said at an event at Berlin's Jewish Museum in 2018. "I would like to say that I don't just speak for the 6 million Jews who were killed, but for all the people who were killed — innocent people," she said. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his condolences in a statement, saying she gave Germany reconciliation despite the horrors she went through here in her life. Steinmeier said the country cannot be grateful enough for her gift. A report released last month said more than 200,000 Jewish survivors are still alive but 70 percent of them will be gone within the next 10 years. Friedlaender was born Margot Bendheim on Nov. 5, 1921. Her father, Artur Bendheim, owned a shop in Berlin. He had fought for Germany and had been decorated in World War I. Friedlaender recalled that, after the Nazis took power, her father initially said that "they don't mean us; We're Germans." She added that "we didn't see it until it was too late." Friedlaender wanted to design clothes and started an apprenticeship as a tailor. After her parents divorced in 1937, Friedlaender, her mother and younger brother went to live with her grandparents. In 1941, they had to move to a so-called "Jewish apartment," and Friedlaender was forced to work nights at a metal factory. In January 1943, just as the family was planning to flee Berlin, Friedlaender returned home to discover that her brother, Ralph, had been taken away by the Gestapo. A neighbor told her that her mother had decided to go to the police and "go with Ralph, wherever that may be." She passed on her mother's final message — "Try to make your life," which would later become the title of Friedlaender's autobiography — along with her handbag. Friedlaender went into hiding, taking off the yellow star that Jews were obliged to wear. She recalled getting her hair dyed red, reasoning that "people think Jews don't have red hair." She said that 16 people helped keep her under the radar over the next 15 months. That ended in April 1944 when she was taken in by police after being stopped for an identity check after leaving a bunker following an air raid. She said she quickly decided to tell the truth and say that she was Jewish. "The running and hiding was over," she said. "I felt separated from the fate of my people. I had felt guilty every day; had I gone with my mother and my brother, I would at least have known what had happened to them." Friedlaender arrived in June 1944 at the packed Theresienstadt camp. In the spring of 1945, she recalled later, she saw the arrival of skeletal prisoners who had been forced onto death marches from Auschwitz ahead of that camp's liberation . "At that moment, we heard of the death camps, and at that moment I understood that I would not see my mother and my brother again," she said. Both were killed at the Auschwitz death camp. Her father had fled in 1939 to Belgium. He later went to France, where he was interned, before being deported in 1942 to Auschwitz, where he was also killed. Shortly after the camp's liberation, she married Adolf Friedlaender, an acquaintance from Berlin whom she met again at Theresienstadt. He had a sister in America, and — after months in a camp for displaced persons — they arrived in New York in 1946. Friedlaender stayed away from Germany for 57 years. She and her husband became US citizens; she worked as a tailor and later ran a travel agency. Adolf Friedlaender died in 1997, aged 87. Margot returned to Germany for the first time in 2003, when she was received at Berlin's City Hall along with others who had been pushed out by the Nazis. In 2010, she moved back to the German capital, where she told her story to students and was decorated with, among other things, the country's highest honor, the Order of Merit. She was made a citizen of honor of Berlin in 2018. Noting that there were few Holocaust survivors still alive, she told an audience that year: "I would like you to be the witnesses we can't be for much longer."
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
German Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer dies at age 103
BERLIN (AP) — Margot Friedländer, a German Jew who survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp and became a high-profile witness to Nazi persecution in her final years, has died. She was 103. Her death was announced by the Margot Friedländer Foundation in Berlin, German news agency dpa reported Friday evening. Details about when and where she died, as well as the cause of death, were not immediately available. The foundation did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment. She died the week of the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender in World War II. After spending much of her life in the United States, Friedländer returned to live in the German capital in her 80s. She was honored with Germany's highest decoration and with a statue at Berlin's City Hall. 'What I do gives me my strength and probably also my energy, because I speak for those who can no longer speak,' Friedländer said at an event at Berlin's Jewish Museum in 2018. 'I would like to say that I don't just speak for the 6 million Jews who were killed, but for all the people who were killed — innocent people,' she said. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his condolences in a statement, saying she gave Germany reconciliation despite the horrors she went through here in her life. Steinmeier said the country cannot be grateful enough for her gift. A report released last month said more than 200,000 Jewish survivors are still alive but 70% of them will be gone within the next 10 years. 'We're Germans' Friedländer was born Margot Bendheim on Nov. 5, 1921. Her father, Artur Bendheim, owned a shop in Berlin. He had fought for Germany and had been decorated in World War I. Friedländer recalled that, after the Nazis took power, her father initially said that 'they don't mean us; We're Germans.' She added that 'we didn't see it until it was too late." Friedländer wanted to design clothes and started an apprenticeship as a tailor. After her parents divorced in 1937, Friedländer, her mother and younger brother went to live with her grandparents. In 1941, they had to move to a so-called 'Jewish apartment,' and Friedländer was forced to work nights at a metal factory. In January 1943, just as the family was planning to flee Berlin, Friedländer returned home to discover that her brother, Ralph, had been taken away by the Gestapo. A neighbor told her that her mother had decided to go to the police and 'go with Ralph, wherever that may be.' She passed on her mother's final message — 'Try to make your life,' which would later become the title of Friedländer's autobiography — along with her handbag. Friedländer went into hiding, taking off the yellow star that Jews were obliged to wear. She recalled getting her hair dyed red, reasoning that 'people think Jews don't have red hair.' She said that 16 people helped keep her under the radar over the next 15 months. That ended in April 1944 when she was taken in by police after being stopped for an identity check after leaving a bunker following an air raid. She said she quickly decided to tell the truth and say that she was Jewish. 'The running and hiding was over,' she said. 'I felt separated from the fate of my people. I had felt guilty every day; had I gone with my mother and my brother, I would at least have known what had happened to them.' Theresienstadt concentration camp and ghetto Friedländer arrived in June 1944 at the packed Theresienstadt camp. In the spring of 1945, she recalled later, she saw the arrival of skeletal prisoners who had been forced onto death marches from Auschwitz ahead of that camp's liberation. 'At that moment, we heard of the death camps, and at that moment I understood that I would not see my mother and my brother again,' she said. Both were killed at the Auschwitz death camp. Her father had fled in 1939 to Belgium. He later went to France, where he was interned, before being deported in 1942 to Auschwitz, where he was also killed. Shortly after the camp's liberation, she married Adolf Friedländer, an acquaintance from Berlin whom she met again at Theresienstadt. He had a sister in America, and — after months in a camp for displaced persons — they arrived in New York in 1946. A return to Germany Friedländer stayed away from Germany for 57 years. She and her husband became U.S. citizens; she worked as a tailor and later ran a travel agency. Adolf Friedländer died in 1997, aged 87. Margot returned to Germany for the first time in 2003, when she was received at Berlin's City Hall along with others who had been pushed out by the Nazis. In 2010, she moved back to the German capital, where she told her story to students and was decorated with, among other things, the country's highest honor, the Order of Merit. She was made a citizen of honor of Berlin in 2018. Noting that there were few Holocaust survivors still alive, she told an audience that year: 'I would like you to be the witnesses we can't be for much longer.'
Winnipeg Free Press
09-05-2025
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
German Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer dies at age 103
BERLIN (AP) — Margot Friedländer, a German Jew who survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp and became a high-profile witness to Nazi persecution in her final years, has died. She was 103. Her death was announced by the Margot Friedländer Foundation in Berlin, German news agency dpa reported Friday evening. Details about when and where she died, as well as the cause of death, were not immediately available. The foundation did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment. She died the week of the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender in World War II. After spending much of her life in the United States, Friedländer returned to live in the German capital in her 80s. She was honored with Germany's highest decoration and with a statue at Berlin's City Hall. 'What I do gives me my strength and probably also my energy, because I speak for those who can no longer speak,' Friedländer said at an event at Berlin's Jewish Museum in 2018. 'I would like to say that I don't just speak for the 6 million Jews who were killed, but for all the people who were killed — innocent people,' she said. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his condolences in a statement, saying she gave Germany reconciliation despite the horrors she went through here in her life. Steinmeier said the country cannot be grateful enough for her gift. A report released last month said more than 200,000 Jewish survivors are still alive but 70% of them will be gone within the next 10 years. 'We're Germans' Friedländer was born Margot Bendheim on Nov. 5, 1921. Her father, Artur Bendheim, owned a shop in Berlin. He had fought for Germany and had been decorated in World War I. Friedländer recalled that, after the Nazis took power, her father initially said that 'they don't mean us; We're Germans.' She added that 'we didn't see it until it was too late.' Friedländer wanted to design clothes and started an apprenticeship as a tailor. After her parents divorced in 1937, Friedländer, her mother and younger brother went to live with her grandparents. In 1941, they had to move to a so-called 'Jewish apartment,' and Friedländer was forced to work nights at a metal factory. In January 1943, just as the family was planning to flee Berlin, Friedländer returned home to discover that her brother, Ralph, had been taken away by the Gestapo. A neighbor told her that her mother had decided to go to the police and 'go with Ralph, wherever that may be.' She passed on her mother's final message — 'Try to make your life,' which would later become the title of Friedländer's autobiography — along with her handbag. Friedländer went into hiding, taking off the yellow star that Jews were obliged to wear. She recalled getting her hair dyed red, reasoning that 'people think Jews don't have red hair.' She said that 16 people helped keep her under the radar over the next 15 months. That ended in April 1944 when she was taken in by police after being stopped for an identity check after leaving a bunker following an air raid. She said she quickly decided to tell the truth and say that she was Jewish. 'The running and hiding was over,' she said. 'I felt separated from the fate of my people. I had felt guilty every day; had I gone with my mother and my brother, I would at least have known what had happened to them.' Theresienstadt concentration camp and ghetto Friedländer arrived in June 1944 at the packed Theresienstadt camp. In the spring of 1945, she recalled later, she saw the arrival of skeletal prisoners who had been forced onto death marches from Auschwitz ahead of that camp's liberation. 'At that moment, we heard of the death camps, and at that moment I understood that I would not see my mother and my brother again,' she said. Both were killed at the Auschwitz death camp. Her father had fled in 1939 to Belgium. He later went to France, where he was interned, before being deported in 1942 to Auschwitz, where he was also killed. Shortly after the camp's liberation, she married Adolf Friedländer, an acquaintance from Berlin whom she met again at Theresienstadt. He had a sister in America, and — after months in a camp for displaced persons — they arrived in New York in 1946. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. A return to Germany Friedländer stayed away from Germany for 57 years. She and her husband became U.S. citizens; she worked as a tailor and later ran a travel agency. Adolf Friedländer died in 1997, aged 87. Margot returned to Germany for the first time in 2003, when she was received at Berlin's City Hall along with others who had been pushed out by the Nazis. In 2010, she moved back to the German capital, where she told her story to students and was decorated with, among other things, the country's highest honor, the Order of Merit. She was made a citizen of honor of Berlin in 2018. Noting that there were few Holocaust survivors still alive, she told an audience that year: 'I would like you to be the witnesses we can't be for much longer.'
Toronto Star
09-05-2025
- General
- Toronto Star
German Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer dies at age 103
BERLIN (AP) — Margot Friedländer, a German Jew who survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp and became a high-profile witness to Nazi persecution in her final years, has died. She was 103. Her death was announced by the Margot Friedländer Foundation in Berlin, German news agency dpa reported Friday evening. Details about when and where she died, as well as the cause of death, were not immediately available. The foundation did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW She died the week of the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender in World War II. After spending much of her life in the United States, Friedländer returned to live in the German capital in her 80s. She was honored with Germany's highest decoration and with a statue at Berlin's City Hall. 'What I do gives me my strength and probably also my energy, because I speak for those who can no longer speak,' Friedländer said at an event at Berlin's Jewish Museum in 2018. 'I would like to say that I don't just speak for the 6 million Jews who were killed, but for all the people who were killed — innocent people,' she said. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his condolences in a statement, saying she gave Germany reconciliation despite the horrors she went through here in her life. Steinmeier said the country cannot be grateful enough for her gift. A report released last month said more than 200,000 Jewish survivors are still alive but 70% of them will be gone within the next 10 years. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'We're Germans' Friedländer was born Margot Bendheim on Nov. 5, 1921. Her father, Artur Bendheim, owned a shop in Berlin. He had fought for Germany and had been decorated in World War I. Friedländer recalled that, after the Nazis took power, her father initially said that 'they don't mean us; We're Germans.' She added that 'we didn't see it until it was too late.' Friedländer wanted to design clothes and started an apprenticeship as a tailor. After her parents divorced in 1937, Friedländer, her mother and younger brother went to live with her grandparents. In 1941, they had to move to a so-called 'Jewish apartment,' and Friedländer was forced to work nights at a metal factory. In January 1943, just as the family was planning to flee Berlin, Friedländer returned home to discover that her brother, Ralph, had been taken away by the Gestapo. A neighbor told her that her mother had decided to go to the police and 'go with Ralph, wherever that may be.' She passed on her mother's final message — 'Try to make your life,' which would later become the title of Friedländer's autobiography — along with her handbag. Friedländer went into hiding, taking off the yellow star that Jews were obliged to wear. She recalled getting her hair dyed red, reasoning that 'people think Jews don't have red hair.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW She said that 16 people helped keep her under the radar over the next 15 months. That ended in April 1944 when she was taken in by police after being stopped for an identity check after leaving a bunker following an air raid. She said she quickly decided to tell the truth and say that she was Jewish. 'The running and hiding was over,' she said. 'I felt separated from the fate of my people. I had felt guilty every day; had I gone with my mother and my brother, I would at least have known what had happened to them.' Theresienstadt concentration camp and ghetto Friedländer arrived in June 1944 at the packed Theresienstadt camp. In the spring of 1945, she recalled later, she saw the arrival of skeletal prisoners who had been forced onto death marches from Auschwitz ahead of that camp's liberation. 'At that moment, we heard of the death camps, and at that moment I understood that I would not see my mother and my brother again,' she said. Both were killed at the Auschwitz death camp. Her father had fled in 1939 to Belgium. He later went to France, where he was interned, before being deported in 1942 to Auschwitz, where he was also killed. Shortly after the camp's liberation, she married Adolf Friedländer, an acquaintance from Berlin whom she met again at Theresienstadt. He had a sister in America, and — after months in a camp for displaced persons — they arrived in New York in 1946. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW A return to Germany Friedländer stayed away from Germany for 57 years. She and her husband became U.S. citizens; she worked as a tailor and later ran a travel agency. Adolf Friedländer died in 1997, aged 87. Margot returned to Germany for the first time in 2003, when she was received at Berlin's City Hall along with others who had been pushed out by the Nazis. In 2010, she moved back to the German capital, where she told her story to students and was decorated with, among other things, the country's highest honor, the Order of Merit. She was made a citizen of honor of Berlin in 2018. Noting that there were few Holocaust survivors still alive, she told an audience that year: 'I would like you to be the witnesses we can't be for much longer.'
Canada Standard
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Canada Standard
Yale scholars' move to Canada can prompt us to reflect on the rule of law
In the most non-controversial and basic sense, the rule of law means formal legality. The law binds citizens and governments. When it comes to nation states, law is enacted by democratically elected legislatures; legal statutes are openly available and sufficiently clear to follow. State actions can be judicially reviewed for compliance with a constitution. In its more ambitious conceptualization, the rule of law can also be understood to include substantive human rights and equity. In Canada, The Constitution Act of 1982 references the rule of law in its preamble. The modern Canadian iteration of the rule of law - which includes substantive ideas about human rights as well as Indigenous treaty rights - is based on liberal ideas shared by many countries, including, historically, the United States. What distinguishes a rule-of-law state from an authoritarian one to a large extent is whether state actions can be judicially reviewed for compliance with a constitution. Although rule of law scholars debate the parameters of the concept of the rule of law, few would debate that what is happening during U.S. President Donald Trump's second term presents anything other than a wholesale attack on the rule of law both domestically in the U.S and internationally. I am a rule of law researcher, educator and lawyer. Since Trump was elected to his first term in 2016, I've relied on American scholars, from a variety of disciplines, to understand what is happening. These include two prominent Yale professors, philosopher Jason Stanley and historian Timothy Snynder, both of whom have recently announced they're moving to the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. In their scholarship, Stanley and Snyder have sought to explain the authoritarian impulses of the first Trump administration and how to resist it. Stanley's father, a German Jew who fled Germany for America in 1939, carries the remembrance of fascism. Both Stanley and Snyder explore the similarities between what is occurring in Trump's America, Viktor Orban's Hungary, Vladimir Putin's Russia, Xi Jinping's China and, equally chillingly, between Trump's America and Adolf Hitler's Germany. Even prior to the first Trump presidency, Stanley already asked in his 2015 book, How Propoganda Works , whether the U.S., "the world's oldest liberal democracy," might already have become a liberal democracy "in name only?" Read more: Why the radical right has turned to the teachings of an Italian Marxist thinker In his 2018 book, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America , Snyder described Trump as a "sado-populist, whose policies were designed to hurt the most vulnerable people of his own electorate." Stanley's focus on propaganda and rhetoric were especially useful for framing the politics of Trump. Similarly, Snyder's focus on the similarities between Trump and other authoritarian leaders, through their attachment to extreme illiberal ideologies, helped frame public discourse in the U.S. during the first Trump presidency. "Illiberal" does not imply conservative in opposition to "being liberal" (with the resonance of "leftist"); rather, it denotes a repudiation of liberal democracy, in the words of political scientist Thomas J. Main. Both Stanley and Snyder are on the public record explaining their decision to immigrate to Canada, on the basis that they can no longer continue their scholarly activities in an American university, even a premier one like Yale. This is an admission by important thinkers that civil society, intellectuals and critical scholars, in particular, are under assault. It comes as no surprise given other developments. Trump's executive orders, threats to some university funding and crackdowns on activists and academics - as well as the attempted deportations of those without U.S. citizenship - have used the idea of combatting campus antisemitism as cover for an attack on free expression, academic independence and student activism. From my perspective as a Jewish person, a post-secondary teacher and as someone with a legal education, all of these developments have hit hard, especially alongside accounts of some of America's most prestigious law firms caving to improper interference by the Trump administration. In the introduction to his bestselling 2020 book, How Fascism Works , Stanley wrote: "In recent years, multiple countries across the world have been overtaken by a certain kind of far-right nationalism; the list includes Russia, Hungary, Poland, India, Turkey and the United States." He explains the choice of the word "fascism" to speak about each of these countries, despite their differences of degree and context: "I have chosen the label 'fascism' for ultra nationalism of some variety (ethnic, religious, cultural), with the nation represented in the person of an authoritarian leader who speaks on its behalf. As Donald Trump declared in his Republican National Convention speech in July 2016, 'I am your voice.'" In his similarly bestselling book, On Tyranny , published in 2017, Snyder wrote: "To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is not basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights." Now that Trump is back in office, Stanley and Snyder, as well as Snyder's Yale colleague and spouse, Marie Shore, the celebrated author of The Ukrainian Night , are leaving Yale for Canada with good reason. While the departure of a handful of prominent academics is hardly a trend, it raises questions about whether there will be an accelerated academic "brain drain", or more American students in Canada. As a Canadian, I would like to say America's loss is our gain, and I wish these scholars well. I am also aware that narratives of flight to Canada as refuge have historically bolstered national myths while obscuring Canadian inequities. My hope is that Canadians will not observe the arrival of U.S. scholars with smugness, but instead with shared concern. We should not be blind to this unique moment in which Canada is called to revisit why we care about Canada and keep watch on the rule of law. Yet, we must also recognize our own profound historical blind spots. For example, while an overt threat to sovereignty is new for some Canadians, it is nothing new for Canada's Indigenous Peoples. Today it's important to understand the distinctively Canadian importance of Indigenous law to any reaffirmation of the rule of law tradition in Canada in the 21st century. Read more: Wet'suwet'en hereditary chief is 'prisoner of conscience' after failure of Delgamuukw ruling 25 years ago Too much cynicism might prevent us from acknowledging the importance of these three scholars' decisions to leave their country and come to ours at this particular time in history. However, my hope is also that we are also inspired by their considerable truth-telling skills to demand Canada also do better.
