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Frankfurt (dpa / lhe) - The Holocaust survivor Trude Simonsohn celebrates her 100th birthday on Thursday.
Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann paid tribute to Frankfurt's honorary citizen as an institution in the fight against anti-Semitism and racism.
"You have always encouraged young people to stand up against racism and anti-Semitism," said the mayor.
Trude Simonsohn was born on March 25, 1921 in Olomouc in what is now the Czech Republic.
After the invasion of Nazi Germany in 1939, she joined a Jewish youth movement and was arrested.
Simonsohn later came to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she met her husband and married.
Both were later deported to Auschwitz and survived.
After the war, the couple moved first to Hamburg and then to Frankfurt.
Feldmann particularly praised her work as a contemporary witness with young people, her commitment to founding the Anne Frank educational center and her many years of work in the Jewish community.
Simonsohn was a member of the board of directors of Frankfurt's Jewish community, and was chairwoman for many years.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210325-99-961158 / 2