The historian and contemporary witness Saul Friedländer received the Ludwig Landmann Prize for courage and attitude.

The prize, endowed with 10,000 euros and launched on the occasion of the reopening of the Jewish Museum, was presented for the first time by the Society of Friends and Patrons of the Jewish Museum.

Due to the corona pandemic, the award ceremony, which took place on Sunday in the Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, had to be postponed by one and a half years.

Theresa White

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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    Friedländer could not come, his daughter Michal Friedländer accepted the honor in his place, a miniature of the sculpture "Untitled" by Ariel Schlesinger, which shows an uprooted and a rooted tree and the original is in front of the museum.

    "Contemporary witness of the horrors of the Holocaust"

    "Saul Friedländer is an outstanding historian, but also a contemporary witness of the horrors of the Holocaust," said former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (The Greens), who gave the laudatory speech for the award winner. He experienced a "childhood in genocide" and was hidden in a Catholic boarding school. That there is anti-Semitism again in Germany today, the country for which Auschwitz is responsible, should not be allowed. "The historical responsibility weighs heavier here," said Fischer. In addition, it is a direct attack on German democracy, which is based on the promise of “never again”.

    In his important work "The Third Reich and the Jews" Saul Friedländer worked on the crimes of the National Socialists against humanity.

    He tells the story from three perspectives, as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Förderverein Andreas von Schoeler said: that of the perpetrators, that of the victims and that of the "bystander" who observed the events.

    In doing so, according to Schoeler, he showed poise and courage.

    That is why he rightly received the first Ludwig Landmann Prize.

    The prize, which is named after the last democratically elected mayor of the city of Frankfurt before the tyranny of the Nazis, will in future be awarded every two years to people who, like Friedländer, campaign against anti-Semitism and racism.

    Always shown courage and poise

    Landmann, who did a lot for Frankfurt - be it the expansion of the exhibition center and airport, or the new Frankfurt in cooperation with Ernst May - always showed courage and attitude, even when he was persecuted as a Jew and died impoverished in exile, said Schoeler . However, he has not been remembered enough so far. The Friends' Association therefore commissioned a biography of the important man from Frankfurt, which Wilhelm von Sternburg wrote.

    Since anti-Semitism is still an issue, as "you Jude" is still used as a swear word in school playgrounds, the forces in society that oppose it must be strengthened, said Schoeler. Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD), who addressed the party with a greeting, described the award as a “sign of being awake”. Saul Friedländer's life's work made an important contribution to this.

    The winner spoke in a video message from his home in Los Angeles. The editor-in-chief of ZDF, Peter Frey, had interviewed him for it. Friedländer said that at first he did not understand why he was receiving the award because he was not brave. But it is obvious that his campaign against anti-Semitism and xenophobia still moves the 88-year-old historian. In conversation, he warns to preserve the culture of remembrance so that Germany remains a “bulwark” against hatred of Jews. This requires places of remembrance and scientific processing, such as is done in the Jewish Museum, he said. Remembrance is central to countering anti-Semitism and hatred. Friedländer said that it was his hope that it would stay alive.