TRY TO MAKE YOUR LIFE – A Jewish Woman Hidden in Berlin

On January 20, 1943, ahead of a planned flight from Nazi Germany, Margot Bendheim learned that her brother and mother had just been picked up by the Gestapo. Her mother manages to leave her a note saying “Try to live your life.” Alone and forsaken, Margot dies her hair red and even undergoes rhinoplasty to hide her Jewish heritage. For fifteen months, she lives in concealment in Berlin, aided by Germans whose motives are not always purely selfless. Then, in 1944, she is taken to Theresienstadt, where with considerable luck she survives the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp. Sixty years on from her emigration to the United States, Margot Friedlander nee Bendheim shares her remarkable life story. With the help of author Malin Schwerdtfeger, she tells a dramatic tale of hope and betrayal, courage and the will to live.

"An impressive document about a lesser-known chapter of the Holocaust – and the life story of a remarkable woman." FAZ