|
|
 |
WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
| |
|
| |
 |
Back |
 |
Contents |
Page 298 |
|
Home
Page |
Forward |
 |
| |
| |
had problems on the German "front." Our trial in
Cologne was set for February 5. Serge had been requesting a postponement since
December, as that was the day he was to take his law examination. The court,
which had moved so slowly that the trial date was set three years after the
incident, refused to postpone the hearing even a few days. In that case we
would stay in France. We told our attorney, Shmuel Tamir, not to bother to come
from Israel. The only ones, then, to appear on February 5 were the lawyers Kaul
and Gregorius; the latter was the one who was attorney for the LICA youths at
Essen. Kaul violently accused the bench of prejudice, and quarreled with
Chairman de Somoskoey. Our lawyers departed, all but slamming the door.
The same day, a thirty-one-year-old German Jew, Sam Maedge, whose
father died in Auschwitz, distributed tracts in front of the courthouse,
demanding punishment of Nazi criminals. He had come to see us spontaneously in
Paris two weeks earlier and expressed his wish to do something in support of
our protest. That morning in the street he was struck by a man who had just
read his tract, which bore his signature and his address. The next morning,
just as he started his Opel, four shots were fired and pierced his car. One
bullet shattered the front left window and glanced his head. Two others made
holes in the front left door, the fourth in the rear left door.
His
complaint was taken down at the police station. An inquiry established that the
shot was fired with intent to kill. But late in February the inquiry was closed
because the perpetrator of the attack could not be traced. The German press
gave only a few lines to this case. A long article was prepared by the staff of
Der Spiegel in Düsseldorf, but it was never published. Why? Simply
because it seemed advisable not to let the outside world know that Germany is a
country where a Jew, the son of a deportee, who protests the impunity of Nazi
criminals, runs the risk of being gunned down. Incidents like this attempt
cloud the image Germany wants to see when she looks into the mirror of her
conscience.
March 1974. Back in Israel with Serge as part of a
delegation of French Jewish intellectuals. I am greeted with flowers by
relatives of the prisoners in Syria. We are received on March 23 by Golda Meir
in the Prime Minister's office and have a warm meeting. The whole visit is
comforting. After the Yom Kippur War and the
|
|
| |
| |
| |
WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
|
Back |
Page 298 |
Forward |
|
|
