In its July/August issue, the German edition of Vogue featured Margot Friedländer. Aged 102, the Holocaust survivor is one of the few remaining witnesses to the Jewish deportations of the Second World War.
Born into a Jewish family in Berlin in 1921, Margot Friedländern (née Bendheim) was 12 years old when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. She managed to finish her schooling and take up an apprenticeship in a dressmaking shop, but the situation in the country became increasingly complicated. In 1937, her parents divorced. The young woman lived with her mother and her younger brother Ralph. They made several unsuccessful attempts to emigrate to the United States. The territory even refused them immigration in 1938. The same applies to Brazil and China.
From 1940, Margot Friedländern was forced to do hard labour. Two years later, her father was deported and died in an extermination camp. In 1943, while trying to flee the country with her family, her brother Ralph was arrested by the Gestapo. Her mother tried to resist, but was deported with her son to Auschwitz. Both were murdered. A clandestine orphan, Margot Friedländern fought for her life, motivated by a message left by her mother: ‘Try to make a life for yourself’. After several months in hiding, she was found in 1944 and deported to Theresienstadt. She met Adolph Friedländer, whom she knew from his work as a costume tailor at the Jewish Cultural Association, where he was head of administration. He and Margot survived the camps. They are the only members of their family still alive after the war.
Click here to read the full article on Luxus Magazine.
Featured photo: © Mark Peckmezian / VOGUE Germany
