Michel Friedman

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Michel Friedman (born January 25, 1956 in Paris) is a German former lawyer, CDU politician and talk show host. From 2000 to 2003 he was Vice President of the Council of German Jews, and from 2001 to 2003 President of the European Jewish Congress. From 1998 to 2003 he had his own radio show "Vorsicht ! Friedman" (Attention ! Friedman) in Hessischen Rundfunk (radio of Hessen).

[edit] Background and Youth

Friedman is a child of a polnish-jewish family. His parents and his grandmother where Schindlerjuden, i.e. people rescued by Oskar Schindler. They had been in the most infamous of all concentration camps, the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. After the second world war, his family opened a fur shop in Paris. A brother lives today in Israel. 1965 the family returned to Germany and settled in Frankfurt am Main. Friedman himself started studying medicine, but then switched to law. He finished 1988 and became a doctor of law in 1994.

[edit] Affaire

In 2003, he was convicted in a case involving sexual slavery and drug dealing. He was accused of the latter since he offered cocaine to the forced prostitutes he bought. Friedman used the false name of Paolo Pinkas (a Hebrew name), which was misinterpreted by the police as Paolo Pinkel. He withdrew from all public offices and asked the public for an apology and for "a second chance". He did however not ask the victims of trafficking he had used for an apology. On July 8, 2003, he was fined 17,000 Euro for drug possession, and is thus considered criminally convicted ("vorbestraft").

Since then he has taken on some TV appearances again.