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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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to act this time without any thought of discretion or
precaution. The car engine was roaring. We stood beside it, chatting like four
policemen waiting to arrest a man. In fact, I think we even looked the part.
People in the neighborhood were peeping through their window curtains at us,
and children were running back and forth.
A streetcar would stop every
ten minutes, and hordes of people would get off. We were getting more and more
jittery. Would he come or wouldn't he? Suddenly Lischka appeared. He did not
walk with the other passengers who got off the streetcar. We had made up our
minds that, come what may, we had to do something. I ran up to Lischka, who had
walked to within thirty yards of the car, and Serge got to him two seconds
later. Each of us took him by an arm, and I shouted: "Come with us! Come with
us!"
Mechanically he took two steps toward the car, then realized
something was wrong. David and Eli got there by then. Eli snatched Lischka's
hat off and hit him on the head with the blackjack, which seemed absurd to us,
for he was over six feet tall and weighed about 220 pounds. Eli struck him
because there was little chance of our dragging him to the Mercedes. He was
discouragingly heavy. Lots of people appeared. Lischka's face was purple with
terror as he cried: "Help! Help!"
He must have believed at that moment
that we were avengers out to kill him. He stood solid as an elephant while Eli
hit him so that there would be cause for legal complaint. But we knew Lischka's
one desire was to avoid publicity and that he would certainly not lodge a
complaint.
Lischka, more frightened than hurt, finally sank to the
ground. By that time we were surrounded, and a German was waving a police badge
in our faces. He must have taken us at first for some of his colleagues.
Fortunately, he was not armed. We told him in French to go away. It never
occurred to me that I had a revolver that at least could have frightened the
crowd away. I began to be afraid we would not be able to get to the Mercedes
because other cars were stopping and we had left the key in the ignition and no
one in the car. All one of the bystanders had to do was to take out the key and
we would be trapped.
Serge yelled: "Into the car!"
We ran at
top speed, but Eli had kept Lischka's hat, and the little policeman was chasing
us, shouting: "Give back the hat, please. The hat!"
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Back |
Page 149 |
Forward |
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