|
|
 |
WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
| |
|
| |
 |
Back |
 |
Contents |
Page 199 |
|
Home
Page |
Forward |
 |
| |
| |
justification for all I had done in the name of the
German people. It said:
So it is B.K. who is in prison, and it is
Herr Doktor Lischka, S.S.-Obersturmbannführer, who peacefully continues
his business as usual. B.K. is in prison, but Doctor of Philosophy Knochen, the
head of the Gestapo in France, no doubt continues to pursue his philosophical
inquiries and to lead a secure middle-class life with no thought of the
hundreds of thousands of his victims whose bones are rotting in the earth. For
the moment, the pusillanimity of German justice has triumphed over Chancellor
Brandt's courage. The Cologne prosecutor is using the apparent illegality of an
act of protest as a cover-up for the staggering guilt of a war criminal.
The anxiety of German neo-Nazis and their desire to gag B.K. is
understandable. B.K. alone is the conscience of that unconscious country. We
can see how prosperity and the "economic miracle" have entrapped that country,
its captains of industry, its tradespeople, its tourists, and its soldiers in a
deadly failure to realize what is going on. Should we call it unconscious or
good conscience? They think they owe us nothing, no explanation, no accounting.
They don't even understand what we want from them. That is why B.K. is doubly
precious to us….
She has fulfilled the promises the judges at
Nuremberg made us but did not keep: to pursue to the ends of the earth the
perpetrators of the greatest crime since time began. Her cause is our cause.
Her exemplary perseverance in her battle, clearly stated and at the same time
dedicated, contains the power to rehabilitate German youth.
As a
German, she has courageously accepted responsibility for the terrible crimes
that she did not commit. Without being personally guilty, she has taken upon
herself the blood-guilt of her people. Those crimes, however, were not hers.
They were the crimes of the foul, big-bellied sixty-year-olds who now occupy
seats of power in the German government and in German industry. …
In spite of everything, B.K. has not concluded that those crimes do not
concern her. That is noble. . . . B.K. has preferred suffering and danger. Thus
she gives us hope, the chance of reconciliation, the first great opportunity
for pardon. Since she began her crusade, and since Chancellor Brandt, instead
of the guilty, has sought forgiveness from the martyred, we place all our hope
in this effort on the part of the German elite. For the first time the message
of assistance so long awaited has been spoken. May the Cologne judges soon
release this first chance, this unique opportunity, for pardon.
The response from East Germany also comforted me in my cell. I learned that
Friedrich Kaul, the solicitor general of the Demo- […cratic]
|
|
| |
| |
| |
WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
|
Back |
Page 199 |
Forward |
|
|
