"Hatred has become loud again"
This article was originally published in German. The English version is an automatic translation and may contain errors. The German original is authoritative.
"Hatred has become loud again." These were the words of Margot Friedländer.
Margot was born in Berlin in 1921. She was a big sister, a child of divorce and Jewish. Why is the last point important? Because it was the only reason for the tragedy of her story and that of many others.
Margot's mother and her younger brother Ralph were deported to Auschwitz and murdered there. Her father suffered the same fate in another extermination camp. Margot herself was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1944 and survived. After the war, she left Germany and moved to the USA with her husband.
But her story does not end there, because Margot returned to her homeland in 2010. As a witness to history, she carried out educational work until her death in 2025. She spoke in schools, memorials, in the Bundestag and in many other institutions about her life, about what had happened and what should never happen again.
In one of her last interviews, she made a poignant comment about the present day. When asked what she observed today that reminded her of the time back then, she answered: "Hatred has become loud again."
But what exactly did Margot mean by that?
Hatred is described in the Duden as intense dislike, as a strong feeling of rejection and enmity towards a person, group or institution. But when does a feeling become loud? When it is shared, cheered or justified. When people no longer remain silent, but express their hostility publicly.
Are we hating loudly again? Is hatred being amplified today, does it find approval? And if so, against whom is it directed? Against people who look different, believe differently or love differently? Or against institutions, such as schools or the Bundestag? Whom do we hate?
One thing is certain: no human being is born with hatred. It is learned. It arises, for example, when fear, prejudice or envy become stronger than compassion and understanding. A newborn knows no prejudice; it only learns them because we pass them on. Perhaps we teach more hatred by letting it become loud.
But if hatred has become loud again, a crucial question arises: how can we silence it again?
Margot Friedländer provided an answer to that. She said: "You are all equal. We are all born in the same way. There is no Christian, Muslim or Jewish blood, there is only human blood. And that is what I tell you: respect people."
Does hatred become quiet where respect becomes loud?