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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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[super…] intendent, who had heard of me, sent
for my briefcase from the checkroom where I had left it. He kept me for three
hours, then released me.
The next day the German newspapers printed
pictures of me brandishing my fists, which pleased the leftists, or being
muzzled by the sergeant-at-arms, which signified that truth was being repressed
in Germany. All the papers, of course, commented on Kiesinger's Nazi past and
on the documentary evidence I had assembled. I had reached my goal. The wall of
silence was crumbling.
I knew I had risked a fine or a jail term with a
suspended sentence, but there were no penalties. The authorities had apparently
decided that it was better not to call any further attention to the incident.
Once or twice a week a few young Germans would attend meetings in
an apartment near place de la Contrescarpe in Paris. They had formerly belonged
to the Social Democratic Party, but were considered too radical and had been
expelled. Consequently, they had joined Dutschke's SDS. They wanted to make
contact with French students.
During one of the meetings we learned of
the attempt on Rudi Dutschke's life, and late that same evening in April 1968,
we decided to organize a protest demonstration in Paris. Alain Krivine and his
friends supported us by having pamphlets printed. I made banners in my
apartment.
We had agreed to meet at the corner of avenue Montaigne and
rue François I, and demonstrate before the German Embassy. I was
astonished to find a thousand students there, but also about one dozen vans of
the National Security Police. There were lots of red flags. This first large
demonstration was to herald the coming explosion in May.
The young
people were shouting: "Springer is a murderer!" Some French students were
waving signs reading: "Kiesinger is a Nazi." I was amazed. Could my campaign at
last be bearing fruit?
After brief speeches by Krivine and Daniel
Cohn-Bendit, the demonstration officially broke up, but it was whispered about
that it would move over to the Latin Quarter. We took the Metro in small
groups. Once we got there, we were surprised to find a large number of security
police, helmeted and armed. I had given my banners to a young German student,
who stashed them in a base- […ment]
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 44 |
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