Irene Hasenberg Butter, a Holocaust survivor who spent six decades in Ann Arbor as a scholar and advocate, died Friday, Oct. 2. She was 95.

Butter survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a child, immigrated to the United States and built a career in public health at the University of Michigan. Michigan Public reported her death Oct. 5, and the Anne Frank House confirmed it in an Oct. 6 tribute.

Born in Berlin on Dec. 11, 1930, Butter grew up as a Jewish child in Nazi-occupied Europe. After the Nazis confiscated her parents' family business, her father moved to Amsterdam in 1937. Butter and the rest of the family followed in January 1938. In Amsterdam, the Hasenbergs lived in the same neighborhood as Anne Frank's family. Butter recalled in an account shared by the Anne Frank House that Frank "was very popular and mischievous."

Butter and her husband, Charlie Butter, moved to Ann Arbor in 1962 to work at the University of Michigan. She taught in U-M's Department of Health Management and Policy until 1996.

Beyond the classroom, Butter became one of Ann Arbor's most visible advocates for Holocaust education and human rights. In 1990, she co-founded the Raoul Wallenberg Medal and Lecture series at U-M, honoring the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. The series brought speakers including Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama, John Lewis and Archbishop Desmond Tutu to campus.

In 2002, she co-founded Zeitouna, an Arab-Jewish women's dialogue group in Ann Arbor made up of six Palestinian and six Jewish women working toward peace.

"What we need to work for is unity and unification, and understanding, and overcoming the divide and overcoming the hatred," Butter said in a 2020 interview with Michigan Public's Stateside program.

Her memoir, Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, was published in 2019 and became a National Jewish Book Award finalist. She is also the subject of two documentaries: Refusing to Be Enemies: The Zeitouna Story (2007) and Never a Bystander (2014).

In 2024, Butter received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, that nation's highest civilian honor. In 2025, the Embassy of the Netherlands in the United States honored her with the Anne Frank Award for Human Dignity and Tolerance.

Birgitta Tazelaar, the Dutch ambassador to the United States, paid tribute on X on Sunday, Oct. 4:

@NLAmbassadorUSA: "I am deeply saddened by the passing of my dear friend, Dr. Irene Butter, at the age of 95. A Holocaust survivor, brilliant public health scholar, and tireless peace activist, Irene's legacy of resilience leaves an indelible mark on the world, and on my own heart."

Butter is survived by children and grandchildren, according to the Anne Frank House. The Irene Butter Fund for Holocaust and Human Rights Education, founded in April 2023 at Temple Beth Emeth by descendants of Holocaust survivors, continues her work in Washtenaw County and beyond.