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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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crack and thrust our passports through it to two
plainclothesmen.
"That's not enough. You'll have to come to
headquarters with us. You have fifteen minutes to get dressed."
Once
the door was shut, I rushed to the telephone and called one of Serge's best
friends, Philippe Lemaitre, the Brussels correspondent of Le Monde, as
well as Michel Lang, whose room was on the floor below us. My mother-in-law
roused Serge in Paris, and he promised he would immediately call Hubert Halin,
the secretary-general of the International Resistance Union. Halin notified his
friends in the inner circles of the Belgian government, and especially those in
the Ministry of Justice.
More knocking on the door. "Hurry up!"
My mother-in-law replied: "We're ladies. We need time to get dressed
properly."
Presently we had to leave. Michel Lang was also under
arrest. We were taken straight to Belgian police headquarters, where we had to
wait a long time. I was ushered into a small office. Two police officials
questioned me and recorded my statements. I was convinced that the purpose of
this arrest was to keep me from speaking, hold me in custody until evening, and
then put me on a train for Paris. At first I was in a fury. I looked at my
watch every five minutes to see whether I was already late. Then I began to use
my head. It couldn't be helped. If they did not let me speak, they would have
trouble with the students and the scandal would be all the greater. The
officials had a lot to type up. I listed Kiesinger's official positions and his
duties, and also described the trip he made in 1940 with foreign correspondents
into occupied Belgium and France. Then, looking straight at the officials, I
added:
"You must have lived through the Nazi occupation of Belgium. You
know what that was like."
They told me that they had been in the
Resistance, but "an order is an order." The German ambassador to Brussels had
asked the Belgian authorities to prevent any incidents during Kiesinger's
visit. Troublemaker Number One was me.
About 12:4 P.M. an inspector
came in, handed me a sheet of paper, and asked me to sign a pledge to leave
Brussels immediately after my speech. He added: "Some VIP's have interceded for
you."
My mother-in-law and Michel Lang had been released a few minutes
before.
I jumped into a taxi and headed straight for the Free
University,
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 66 |
Forward |
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