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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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among the victims of Nazism. As a result of
the non-signing and non ratification of such agreements thousands of Nazi
criminals are free today – among them over a thousand who were already
convicted in absentia, in France, for sending a hundred thousand Jews to the
gas chambers. This situation is intolerable to human society."
Because of his political obligations and the situation in Israel, Shmuel
Tamir cannot leave his country to represent me at my trial, which may be a long
one. He asks his friend Arie Marinsky, an eminent lawyer, to take his place and
represent me at Cologne at the request of the Israeli Bar and of the
Association of Invalid Victims of Nazism. Marinsky will be assisted by
Jürgen Stange, a lawyer from West Berlin. Arie Marinsky immediately
accepts. He takes the next plane to Paris and with Serge's help prepares for
his coming confrontation with the Cologne court.
In Paris, Le
Monde prints a petition with a long list of signatories in support of my
action and demanding that I be released and ratification approved. Outstanding
Jews were among the signers: many leaders of the Resistance, political men like
Mitterand (then in the midst of the presidential campaign), writers,
journalists, lawyers.
In Cologne, Arie Marinsky and Stange fight inch
by inch with Victor de Somoskoey, chairman of the court, a stern, intransigent
man who desires to limit the trial to the simple fact of a violation of the
law. In his eyes I am merely a delinquent in a civil case and he does not
understand or wish to understand the public excitement over my arrest. At the
end of eight hours of discussion, Marinsky obtains my release in the personal
custody of Benjamin Halevi and my promise to appear at my trial. At the same
time the 30,000 marks bail paid three years ago by Mr. Lichtenstein is refunded
by him. De Somoskoey seems to have gained the impression that Marinsky will not
speak at my trial and only Stange will be responsible for my defense, so there
will be no confrontation with the Israeli lawyer. But before long he will
realize that this was a misapprehension. For Marinsky had clear insight into
the true nature of most German magistrates, as represented by de Somoskoey. He
confesses his apprehensions in the Jerusalem Post:
Mrs. Klarsfeld is in real danger. The
German legal machine may be inflexible to a point that we may not even imagine.
It may seem totally unthinkable to us that an idealist like Mrs. Klarsfeld
should be incarcerated while some of the world's most ruthless murderers like
Lischka stay free and unpunished. But it is quite possible that this is
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 308 |
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