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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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de…] portees. Now, at Dachau, two police cars
and a bus filled with police arrive. They stop in front of the camp. In spite
of the extraterritorial status of the former death camp, three plainclothes
policemen cross into the compound and approach our group – I, my two
friends in their KZ coats, and a few journalists. They tell me I am under
arrest and take me away without outward violence, but with that sinister legal
manner that tends, even unwittingly, to strike terror into the hearts of the
Nazis' victims. I am taken to the state prison of Bavaria. Early the next
morning four police take me in a car from Munich to Cologne, to Ossendorf
prison, in which I had been confined in 1971.
The next day there is a
demonstration in Tel Aviv before the German Embassy. They chant, "Nazis in,
Beate out!" Serge is in daily contact with Tel Aviv; an office and telephone
have generously been contributed to our cause by the parents of our friend,
Francis Lenchener. Akiva Nof, Yoella Harshafi, Simha Holzberg, Bronia
Klibansky, Myriam Meyouhas, and Haika Grossman do their best in Tel Aviv to
rouse public opinion. Benjamin Halevi, the member of the Knesset and former
member of the Supreme Court of Israel, personally goes to the German Embassy on
April 20 and requests that I be released, making himself responsible for my
appearance at the trial.
But the German press prints practically
nothing about these events in Israel, nor of any in France. On April 23 there
is a demonstration in front of the German Embassy on the Champs-Elysées.
Numerous reports are wired to Bonn, but the German press does not carry the
story, nor does it mention the acerb comments in the French press criticizing
the "tactlessness" of the Bavarian police. At the end of the first week, Serge,
who has been in constant telephone contact with our supporters, comes to the
conclusion that public reaction has not been strong enough. We must increase
the pressure or I may be kept in jail until my trial, which is set for June.
That is not too long to wait, or to cause our friends to relax their efforts.
But in June the Germans can postpone the trial until the fall. By that time I
will already have spent five or six months in jail. The court need only
sentence me to time already served, thus satisfying the German public that the
"troublemaker" has paid her debt.
And it is true that I will have paid.
Six months in prison is wearing. And what a disaster for my family! And how
exasperating to be locked up when I am convinced I am acting for the honor of
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 302 |
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