Volkswacht Bodensee - Renowned Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlaender dies at 103

"With her death Germany has lost one of the most important voices in its contemporary history," a statement from the foundation said.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that the news of Friedlaender's death "fills me with deep sadness".

"She gave our country the gift of reconciliation, despite everything that the Germans did to her as a young woman," he said, adding: "We cannot be grateful enough" for Friedlaender's efforts.

Friedlaender was born in Berlin into a Jewish family of button makers and trained as a fashion illustrator.

During the Holocaust she was interned at the Theresienstadt camp in the modern-day Czech Republic.

While she and her husband Adolf survived and emigrated to the United States, the rest of her immediate family perished in Auschwitz.

After her husband's death she began taking a memoir-writing class and worked on a documentary about her experiences.

She went back to Germany for the first time in 2003 and at the age of 88 moved permanently to Berlin.

Her tireless efforts in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive, particularly by sharing her experiences with younger people, won her plaudits in Germany and beyond.

Steinmeier had been due to award Friedlaender Germany's highest civilian honour at a ceremony earlier on Friday, which was abruptly cancelled.

"Until the last, she urged us to defend democracy -- remembering alone is not enough," her foundation said.

Her last public appearance was earlier this week at a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II at Berlin's city hall, where she repeated what became her mantra.

"Be human! That is what I ask you to do: be human!," she said.

U.Maertens--VB