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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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other, to its martyrs – had gone to the other
side of the globe to find him and demand justice.
Eagerly I searched
for Serge in the crowd. Then I saw him, hanging back, smiling at the whole
scene. "Make your life a poem. Lift it to the level of an inspiring
experience." That's what he had written to the little German girl whom he had
just met back in the spring of 1960. Without him by my side, without his
complete and tactful involvement, without his everlasting energy, what could I
have accomplished? Another man doubtless would have required me to cut myself
off from Germany. Serge had helped me to become a real German.
The
Barbie case revived serious arguments in France. The crimes committed by the
Nazis and their accomplices in Vichy must not have a time limit, or be
forgotten, or just chucked into the cesspool of innumerable murders committed
since. The battle against fascism must go on, for those who committed crimes
are rising to the surface again. It is not surprising that a Darquier de
Pellepoix, Xavier Vallat's successor as General Commissioner for Jewish
Affairs, should timidly ask to return to France. How many books and articles
say that if de Gaulle was the sword, Pétain was the shield, and that
deep in their hearts the French hold the two in the same esteem? That is why
the Barbie case is a healthy sign. Through one criminal all the crimes
committed through a loathsome police system can be remembered, and the need to
remember what such a system led to will be kept alive. Of course one can be
pessimistic about that, but what good will it do?
An editorial in Le
Monde said:
The brilliant methods Klaus Barbie used in
interrogating victims have since been widely employed elsewhere. In some
countries of Latin America torture is a daily occurrence. In Asia, a massacre
like My Lai is to some officers merely the purest form of sanction. In France,
it took a high military officer to justify the use of the "question" in
Algeria. In East Europe, we have known for a long time that confessions are
extracted by torture. What's the use of belatedly punishing this man if
barbarism such as he practiced can never be eliminated?
How
can something that seems to be human nature be changed? I have found my answer
to that, the answer of a simple but energetic private citizen determined to be
heard. Let no one criticize me for my "dedication" in pursuing Barbie as I was
criticized in certain quarters for pursuing Kiesinger. These men stand for
prin- […ciples]
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 273 |
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