Margot Friedländer's adress on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2022

January 27 is the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust. It commemorates the liberation of the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz in 1945. In her speech, Margot Friedländer urgently warned against a growing ignorance of history and current dangers to democracy. Born in Berlin in 1921, she survived war and persecution in Berlin’s underground and then in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. In 1946 she emigrated to New York and returned to Berlin in 2010. Since then, she regularly visits schools across Germany to speak about her life and encourage young people’s civic engagement – for example with the Margot Friedländer Award.

In the extraordinary plenary session, the Presidents of the European Parliament, the European Commission as well as of the European Council also stressed the importance of preserving the memory of the Holocaust and standing up for democratic values.