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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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scarcely have done for us to go roaming through
Cologne on a Sunday in search of a locksmith who could open an automobile trunk
– and find inside an Orthodox Jew.
That evening we had a quiet
dinner in a Yugoslav restaurant. It was impossible to keep Eli from clowning,
especially since he had the two blackjacks in his pocket. He never stopped
fooling with them and telling jokes. This merry evening did little to allay our
apprehension over the following day, however.
A catastrophe awaited us
when we got back to the apartment; its owner had just returned, and so we would
have to move out and find a hotel where we would not have to give our names.
Otherwise the police could track us down.
Beate set out ahead of us
into the dark night and found a hotel with some vacant rooms on the Hansaring.
We took one with three beds and one with two. It turned out that the young
night clerk knew of Beate and sympathized with her cause, and while they were
chatting, we slipped in like conspirators without registering. When we got to
our room we took out the blackjacks and, for one last time, began fooling
around with them again.
We had made up our minds to go to bed early,
but that was now out of the question; it was already late. We had hardly fallen
asleep when Beate got us up. It was 6 A.M. David said his prayers. Eli
complained because it was too early for him to get breakfast and he did not
want to undertake the raid on an empty stomach.
It was freezing cold.
Eli was wearing a windbreaker; I, a parka; Serge and David, raincoats. At 7
A.M. we got to Lischka's house, separated, and took up our positions along the
tree lined street Lischka would use to get to the Maria-Himmelfahrt-Strasse
streetcar stop. On one side was a church with a recessed doorway in which Serge
– whom Lischka already knew – could hide; on the other were garages
in which David could hide. We parked the Mercedes at the curb.
Then we
discovered something else to worry about: an enormous number of people took the
streetcar at that stop. In our state of mind the presence of those people just
a few yards away from us was a huge problem. Serge said there was no reason for
us to make so much of it because, after all, the people were not going to move
away from the streetcar stop and everything would happen very quickly. But we
were still pretty nervous.
First, Eli was to take Lischka by surprise
from behind and hold him. I was to pretend to be fussing with the engine of the
Mer […cedes
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 147 |
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