Holocaust survivor becomes German again after 54 years

Apr 7, 2010, 15:45 GMT

Berlin - More than half a century after being deported during World War II, a Berlin-born Jew returned to have her German citizenship reinstated on Wednesday.

Margot Friedlaender, who now lives in the US, was officially granted German nationality again by Berlin's Senator for Home Affairs, Ehrhart Koerting.

Koerting said it was a great honour that she accepted German citizenship after all the suffering she had experienced.

Friedlaender's mother and brother were both captured by the Nazis as they tried to escape wartime Germany. They were both deported to Auschwitz and killed.

Friedlaender hid for 15 months, from 1943 onwards. She was arrested in April 1944 and taken to Theresienstadt concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic, where she survived until the end of the war.

After being liberated, she emigrated to the US with her husband.

The 88-year-old returned to Berlin for the first time in 2004, on an invitation from the city government. At the time, her journey was recorded by New York filmmaker Thomas Halacynski in his documentary, Don't Call It Heimweh.

Friedlaender also turned her experiences into an autobiography, Try To Make Your Life.