At 102, she is one of the oldest people to grace the cover of the fashion bible. Vogue has always been up for a surprise on the cover — and rightly so.
102-year-old Margot Friedländer still attends major social events, such as the German Film Awards in May 2024Image: Agentur BaganzI/MAGO
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A woman who survived the horrors of the Holocaust as the "cover girl" of a leading fashion magazine? You might wonder if that isn't a little disrespectful, considering Margot Friedländer's life and story of suffering?
Yet it is not. Because this woman has something to say as one of the most important surviving witnesses of the Holocaust. She has made it her life's work to tell people about what she experienced. Always gently, kindly, with compassion, without pointing fingers. Her main objective is to preserve remembrance culture while respecting humanity.
Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer lands on German Vogue cover
The 102-year-old will grace the cover of the July/August issue of Vogue Germany. She is a tireless fighter for remembrance culture and for more humanity.
Image: VOGUE Germany/dpa/picture-alliance
'Don't look at what divides you. Look at what unites you'
She is one of the last few Holocaust survivors who experienced the horrors of Nazi crimes firsthand. Having first lived in the US, she moved to Berlin in 2010 and has since been tirelessly campaigning for a remembrance culture as well as for mutual understanding and tolerance. In 2016, she received the Order of Merit of Berlin, the highest award given by the state.
Image: VOGUE Germany/dpa/picture-alliance
106-year-old 'cover girl'
But an even older model has already made it onto the cover of the magazine in 2023: Apo Whang-Od, who hails from a remote, mountainous village in the Kalinga province in northern Philippines, began tattooing at age 16. The traditional Kalinga tattooist has inspired a new generation to learn "batok," which involves tapping tattoos into the skin by hand using a thorn dipped in soot and natural dye.
Image: Vogue Philippines/Artu Nepomuceno
'A new type of man'
Hollywood darling Timothee Chalamet is the first man to make a solo appearance on the cover of British Vogue in its 106-year history. Vogue describes him as carving out "a new genre of man" who delivers both vulnerable and violent performances. In the interview, Chalamet talks about growing up, his ambitions and the importance of going to the dentist.
Image: Vogue
'We're looking forward to a victory'
Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, 44-year-old Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine, discussed her unannounced trip to the US in July 2022, where she addressed Congress. Saying that she was speaking as a mother and daughter, not just a First Lady, she showed US lawmakers pictures of Ukrainian children who had been killed by Russian rockets before she requested more support in the form of arms.
Image: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue
Adele lands on the UK and US covers
Promoting her latest album, "30," the English singer-songwriter graced the November 2021 covers of both British and American "Vogue" with two different photos. In the interview, Adele broke her media silence on her drastic weight loss: "I did it for myself and not anyone else. So why would I ever share it?" Adele said, reacting to fans who would have liked to follow her "journey" on Instagram.
Image: Steven Maisel/British Vogue
Greta Thunberg: Fridays for Future
Featuring on the fashion magazine's Summer 2021 cover, the teenage activist used the platform to criticize fast fashion: "The fashion industry is a huge contributor to the climate and ecological emergency, not to mention its impact on the countless workers and communities who are being exploited around the world in order for some to enjoy fast fashion that many treat as disposables," she tweeted.
Image: Vogue Scandinavia
Malala Yousafzai: The outspoken survivor
As a 15-year-old, Malala was shot by the Taliban in Pakistan because she spoke up for girls' education. In 2014, she received the Nobel Peace Prize. She featured on the cover of Vogue UK's July 2021 edition, in which she discussed the limits of online activism: "Right now ... we have associated activism with tweets. That needs to change, because Twitter is a completely different world."
Image: Vogue
Amanda Gorman: Rise of a cultural icon
We watched agog as she recited her poem "The Hill We Climb" with such aplomb at Joe Biden's inauguration. Since then, Amanda Gorman's star has been on the ascent. The 24-year-old cultural icon, Harvard graduate and Youth Poet Laureate has since landed a modeling contract and will grace the cover of US Vogue in May 2021.
Image: Vogue
Lizzo: 'Be the first'
In an Instagram post, musician Lizzo claimed that she was the first big, Black woman on the cover of Vogue — although the magazine itself hasn't confirmed that. Nevertheless, the rest of her post is worth emulating: "But our time has come. To all my Black girls, if someone like you hasn't done it yet — BE THE FIRST."
Image: Vogue
Harry Styles: Wear what you like
British pop singer (and former One Direction heartthrob) Harry Styles became the US magazine's first ever male cover star in November 2020. Garbed in a Gucci gown paired with a black tuxedo jacket, the cover sparked debate. Styles responded, "I think what's exciting about right now is you can wear what you like. It doesn't have to be X or Y. Those lines are becoming more and more blurred."
Image: Vogue
Yalitza Aparicio: Proud of her roots
In a country where lighter skinned people get more media coverage despite being outnumbered by Indigenous communities, Mexican actor Yalitza Aparicio's Vogue Mexico cover made history. The former preschool teacher, who received a best actress Oscar nomination for her debut performance in Alfonso Cuaron's 2018 drama "Roma," was named UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Indigenous Peoples in 2019.
Image: Vogue
Padma Lakshmi: Tireless multi-hyphenate
Padma Lakshmi, top chef, author and host of an Emmy-winning television show, is also an ambassador for the American Civil Liberties Union. She has established the Endometriosis Foundation of America (a condition that she suffered personally), and placed the spotlight on sexual assault in an op-ed in 2018 in the New York Times, where she revealed that she too was a rape survivor.
Image: Vogue
Priyanka Chopra: Model to memoirist
The first Indian woman to grace the cover of US Vogue, Priyanka Chopra rose to fame in her native India after being crowned Miss World in 2000. She starred in several Bollywood films, winning acting awards on the way. She has since successfully crossed over to Hollywood and recently published her memoir, "Unfinished," which made the New York Times bestseller list.
Image: Vogue
Madonna: Pop culture phenomenon
No Vogue-related listicle would be complete without a mention of the singer who not only influenced pop culture but whose similarly titled single put "vogue-ing" on the map. The 65-year-old music icon has been setting trends since the 80s, and has played muse to fashion designers and younger pop stars alike.
Image: Vogue
Lupita Nyong'o: Planting the seed of possibility
The Oscar-winning Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong'o has openly spoken of her insecurity about her looks. "Until I saw people who looked like me, doing the things I wanted to. Seeing Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey in 'The Color Purple,' it dawned on me: 'Oh — I could be an actress!' We plant the seed of possibility." She now uses her platform "to expand and diversify the African voice."
Image: Vogue
Forces for change
Besides Laverne Cox, who became the first trans cover person on British Vogue, this landmark issue boasted a cover line-up of global female movers-and-shakers including New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern; teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, and Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Image: Vogue
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A perusal of the diverse Vogue covers in various countries where the magazine is published is proof that Vogue wants to be more than just a fashion rag: It sets themes and features unusual yet important people in the spotlight. Harry Styles, the first man on the cover British Vogue, garbed in women's clothing to convey a gender-neutral attitude to life. Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner and activist Malala Yousafzai or the then 106-year-old Filipino Kalinga tattoo artist Apo Whang-od were also featured on the magazine's cover.
'Try to make your life' is a quote from Friedländer's motherImage: Britta Pedersen/dpa/picture alliance
'Be human!'
Margot Friedländer, who survived Nazi atrocities and never tires of conveying her message to people, says in the July/August issue of German Vogue: "Don't look at what divides you. Look at what unites you. Be human, be reasonable."
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She has spoken at schools and the German Bundestag. She is a regular guest at Holocaust memorial events. She has been awarded, among others, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Berlin.
But her favorite place to be is in schools, Friedländer said in the 2010 documentary "A Long Way Home," co-produced by DW, because people there listen to her "incredibly." "I've received — I don't know — maybe a thousand letters. I always say: 'It's for you. We can't change what happened.' That has become my mission."
Margot Friedländer stands beside a portrait of herself on her 100th birthdayImage: Fabian Sommer/dpa/picture alliance
Recalling how it all began
Thus, Vogue is sending out a clear signal together with Margot Friedländer. She is concerned with the shift to the right and growing antisemitism. She also discusses being worried by the fact that more and more young people are attracted to the right-wing slogans of the AfD, that antisemitic attacks are on the rise and that politicians are being assaulted in public spaces.
She was 12 when Hitler came to power. She remembers exactly how it started back then. That's why she speaks; also on behalf of the victims who are no longer around to do so themselves.
Friedländer was born a German Jew in Berlin on November 5, 1921. Her family was murdered by the Nazis, while she herself was hidden by Germans in Berlin for a while, but fell into the clutches of the Gestapo in 1944 and was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
There, shortly after liberation, she married her husband Adolf Friedländer. She emigrated to the USA with him. He died in 1997. Years later, she decided to return to Berlin, despite doubts as to whether it was a good decision to return to the land of the perpetrators. With her memoir "Try to make your life," written in 2008, she traveled the country to spread her message.
Friedländer received the Mevlüde-Genc medal in June 2024 for her fight against racism, right-wing extremism and antisemitismImage: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa/picture alliance
Making more than a fashion statement
However, Vogue would not be Vogue if it did not also address the sartorial aspect of Margot Friedländer's life.
As a young woman, Friedländer dreamed of becoming a dressmaker and fashion designer. In 1936, she enrolled at a Berlin arts and crafts school and learned fashion and advertising drawing. She often sat in Berlin cafes on the fashionable Kurfürstendamm and watched the smartly dressed ladies, she told Vogue. She wanted to design clothes herself and had big plans, training as a dressmaker — but the Holocaust changed everything.
Yet, Friedländer was and remains a fashion-conscious woman whose walk-in closet in her apartment in a Berlin retirement home occupies a large and important place, as Vogue notes with great interest. In addition to "vintage" clothing that Friedländer still wears, there are also items of clothing and accessories by well-known designers.
The photo session for Vogue took place in the Botanical Garden of the Free University of Berlin. Friedländer had herself photographed in cheerful, colorful dresses with floral motifs, always smiling and friendly.
Her favorite accessory is a memento of her mother. It is a large amber necklace that she wears on many important occasions. The necklace is an eye-catcher and a statement — more than a fashion statement.
