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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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activities, in a lengthy conversation to distract
him. Nevertheless, he too uttered the fateful words: "So you are a journalist?"
"No. I did some reporting during the electoral campaign, but now I am
just a housewife."
"Ah, in that case, just write 'no profession'."
And he granted me my visa.
About 9 P.M. on the evening of
August 25, the train began crawling through the suburbs of Berlin. Dare I
confess that only then began to be afraid? The demonstration I intended to make
in Warsaw would be quite different from everything I had done in the West. I
couldn't get out of my mind that young people had been sent to rot in communist
prisons for far less.
After a few minutes a man sat down opposite me.
He never took his eyes off me, but not until the train was well under way did
he begin to talk. He introduced himself as a counselor in the Democratic
Republic's embassy in Warsaw.
What a relief! I began to feel less
depressed.
"Do you know Warsaw?" he asked.
"Barely. I thought
I'd look around it for two or three days."
"I'd be happy to guide you.
My family is in East Berlin, so I'll have plenty of time. I would really like
you to have a good look at Poland."
It was a distinctly embarrassing
invitation, for if this East German diplomat were to be seen in my company, his
career would suffer – beginning tomorrow morning.
We had hardly
reached Warsaw early in the morning when my diplomat brought up the subject
again: 'Let me help you find a hotel."
"I have friends here and I can
stay with them. At any rate, I'm going to wander around the city all day. I'll
make up my mind later."
"Finally I managed to get rid of my attentive
diplomat, but I had no luck at the first two hotels I went to. Time was growing
short, so I asked for shelter at a youth hostel, which was full at the moment
but let me leave my suitcase.
I had only a few hours in which to alert
the Western press. I felt very small and vulnerable in the unfamiliar city. My
taxi driver kept going around and around the same block, looking for the number
of the Agence France Presse correspondent. I finally told him to let me out and
I would find it myself. But I couldn't.
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 118 |
Forward |
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