Our dear friend Livia Fränkel has passed away
Livia Fränkel was born on 4 December 1927 as the second daughter of the Jewish Szmuk family in Sighet, Romania (Hungary from 1940). After the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany in March 1944, the family had to move to Sighet, which became a ghetto. In May 1944, they were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, where the parents were murdered the same day they arrived.
Livia and her older sister Hédi became closer in the camp after the death of their parents. In the summer of 1944, both were deported to the Neuengamme subcamp on Veddel (Dessauer Ufer) for forced labour and from there to the Neuengamme subcamps in Wedel and Eidelstedt. They were finally liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on 15 April 1945. They went to Sweden for convalescence and decided to stay there. Both sisters married and started families with three children each. As Hédi Fried lost her husband at an early age and had to work to support her family, Livi practically helped raise her children. This also explains the close contact between the Fried and Fränkel families to this day.
Livi later studied languages, became involved in the Holocaust Survival Association and spoke as a contemporary witness, mainly in schools in Sweden. For 20 years, Livia Fränkel and her sister Hédi Fried have taken part in the anniversaries of the liberation in Hamburg at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial every year and have also spoken here to countless groups of schoolchildren. In addition to the coronavirus years, 2025 was the first year in which Livi was no longer able to come due to her physical weakness. We had to say goodbye to her sister Hédi in November 2022. The loss of her sister just a few days before Livi's 95th birthday was a heavy blow for her.
Until their deaths, Livia Fränkel and Hédi Fried campaigned against right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism and racism and in favour of a democratic and humane society. They saw it as their duty to tell young people in particular about the National Socialist crimes and to encourage them to show civil courage and raise their voices against injustice and fascism. It was fascinating how many languages they felt at home in, they spoke fluent Romanian, Hungarian, Swedish, German, English, French and certainly a few more.
Both sisters were honoured several times for their political commitment against forgetting and became well-known personalities in Swedish society. The photographer Mark Mühlhaus, who knew them both well, wrote: "They were more than special. What they gave to society, despite what was done to them."
People like Livia Fränkel have made this world a better place. The rise of anti-Semitism, racism and the accompanying shift to the right worried her greatly.
Livi was a very clever, warm-hearted and quick-witted woman who we already miss very much. Her loss is not only a heavy blow for our colleagues at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, but also for us personally. We were close friends with both Livi and her sister Hédi, visited them again and again in Stockholm, for example to celebrate their milestone birthdays with them and the extended Fried/Fränkel family, and spent time with them when they were in Hamburg.
So today we mourn with the large family, which both sisters always described as their victory over the National Socialists. Our thoughts are with Livi's children Titti, Dan and Lis, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren as well as with Hédi's family. We are sad. But we will always be glad that we were able to know Livi for so long.
Karin Heddinga, Ulrike Jensen
