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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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Page 135 |
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How could you have done the same thing in two
countries of the East? You know very well that this repetition of your behavior
in Poland is going to be disastrous for you. We will be harder on you, for you
have slandered us and you have acted against Czechoslovakia. You may as well
expect to spend quite a long time here."
I was really getting worried
now. As a foreigner I was helpless. In the West I could have depended on a
lawyer, but here in the East what could I depend on?
Another police car
was already parked in front of the hotel. I was reimbursed for the two or three
days' rent I had paid in advance. Then we went up to my room, while three
policemen stood guard in the lobby. The police dumped everything out of my
suitcase and my flight bag, rummaged under the mattress and in the blankets. In
the closet they found a package of pamphlets I had left there. They even turned
back the rug, and they thoroughly searched the bathroom.
All at once
the one who was searching my suitcase put his hand inside the lining and fished
something out. He seemed terribly excited as he called to his colleague. He had
just discovered about ten pieces of microfilm, which they tried to read by the
light of a lamp. The films had lists of Czech Jews, and I had brought them for
the express purpose of teasing the police. I had cropped enough of them so that
their source could not be read. All the names were of Czech Jews whom the Nazis
had murdered during the war and to whom the Czech government had awarded
posthumous citations. Serge had unearthed them at the Library of Contemporary
Jewish Documents. We figured that the police would immediately check on them
and would get wise to the trick. As a matter of fact, no one ever mentioned the
subject to me again.
I had missed lunch and I was hungry. Delicious
aromas were coming from the elegant hotel dining room. Might as well have a
decent meal, I murmured. The official agreed. All four of us were seated at a
table in the midst of foreign tourists. The policemen just ordered beer, but I
selected some expensive and hearty items from the menu, including shashlik and
a half bottle of wine. Everyone at the other tables stared at us, because I was
well-dressed and my companions, who were obviously policemen, kept watching me
and not eating.
It was after 8 P.M. when we got back to the office we
had been in earlier. My escorts had stopped along the way to buy themselves
some sandwiches.
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Back |
Page 135 |
Forward |
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