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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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Early in the afternoon the bus brings the delegation
to my prison, in defiance of the ruling forbidding them to come. Followed by
three buses loaded with police, my friends arrive at Ossendorf. Each has a
tricolor bouquet, and presently, in full view of the press, the prison guards,
and growing crowds of citizens, forty-five tricolor bouquets are laid at the
door of the prison while banners are raised. Julien, the two Henris, and my
mother-in-law come in to see me. The jail staff is very much impressed by this
unprecedented demonstration for a prisoner. For my part, I do what I can to
impress the staff that my attitude is worthy of the cause I champion. While
girls belonging to the anarchist league, Baader-Meinhof, destroy property,
yell, swear, and attack the guards, I keep everything scrupulously clean and
stay aloof from the guards, but polite.
Brandt has just been ousted as
a result of the Guillaume espionage scandal, and the new chancellor is Helmuth
Schmidt. I wonder how that will affect my situation. The wife of Guillaume has
been arrested and is in prison at Ossendorf. They give her my cell, which I
have cleaned so thoroughly, and transfer me to another. I start cleaning again.
May 2. The interim president of the Republic, Alain Poher,
publicly expresses through the press his "deep emotion" over my imprisonment.
In Israel, the youth organizations issue a
petition that rapidly lists some hundred thousand names. There are frequent
demonstrations of small groups before the German Embassy. The young deputy
Akiva Nof chains herself to the fence of the Embassy. A young mother, Pamela
Klein, comes up from Beersheba and begins a hunger strike at the Wailing Wall.
I receive hundreds of letters from Israelis and am moved by such thoughts as:
"You are our justice fighter."
"A Jewish tradition says that in
every generation there are thirty-six righteous people; because of them the
world exists. I'm sure you are one of them."
"I was deeply shocked and
profoundly pained when I learned of the arrest of the only true representative
of conscience in Germany."
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 304 |
Forward |
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