04-04-2025
Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer, 103, awarded honorary prize
Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer has received the inaugural honorary award of the International Prize of the Peace of Westphalia.
The 103-year-old was awarded the prize in the western German city of Münster by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who praised her long contribution to humanity, tolerance, peace and democracy.
Friedländer was born in Berlin in 1921 and was the sole survivor of her nuclear family during the Holocaust, having been transported to Theresienstadt in 1944.
Her father died in a concentration camp, while her mother and brother were killed at Auschwitz.
After more than 60 years in exile in New York, Friedländer returned to Berlin at the age of 88 and took German citizenship.
"But your message is not a reckoning with this country ... a reckoning that you have every right to make," said Steinmeier, addressing Friedländer.
Friedländer said she spoke "for all people who were murdered because other people did not respect them as human beings."
Amid threats to peace, every individual has an obligation to stand up for peaceful coexistence, respect and democracy, she said.
"Because what happened back then must never, ever happen again," said the 103-year-old.
The ceremony took place at the second Westphalian Peace Conference, which drew several hundred participants to discuss the changing global order.
The Peace of Westphalia relates to two peace treaties signed in 1648 which ended a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648.
