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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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thirty years ago should long ago have been swept out
of the way. I was about to protest, but Herr Stange stopped me. If this happens
again, my client and I will have to leave the court. As for alleged
instructions from Jerusalem, I perceive you do not understand the situation of
Israeli lawyers. I received my instructions thirty years ago when I learned
that my entire family had been killed by the German Nazis at Bialystok." The
judge withdrew into his shell.
The trial drags on with the twenty-one
witnesses for the prosecution, which has its nose stuck tight in facts and
dares not raise its eyes to look into causes. This trial needs dynamite. The
resister René Clavel makes an appointment for June 27 with a member of
Giscard d'Estaing's cabinet. He informs the minister that he is determined to
make himself heard by fair means or foul at the trial where the presiding judge
refuses to hear the testimony of the muzzled French witnesses. Informed of
this, the President of the Republic intervenes in an extraordinary fashion the
next day, June 28. Through diplomatic channels he sends a message to the German
Minister of Foreign Affairs declaring that he is concerned about my trial,
demanding that the French witnesses be allowed to testify, and reminding His
Excellency that the Bundestag has still not ratified the accord. On Saturday,
June 29, de Somoskoey reverses himself: the court will hear the French
witnesses.
Third session, Monday, July 1. My faithful team, Jean
Pierre-Bloch, and René Clavel, along with youths of the Jewish Student
Front are present. It is Lischka's turn to testify. All my friends have put on
their medals; the associations have sent flag-bearers. I enter the court
between two rows of French flags that honor the Germany I represent. A storm
breaks. De Somoskoey protests against the letter from Giscard d'Estaing. "I
cannot take this letter into consideration. This is an intrusion on the
independence of the court." He makes it known that the Minister of Justice has
replied to this intervention on the part of the President of the Republic that
"In Germany the judges are independent and subject only to the law."
The same day there is an editorial in the Israeli paper Maariv
saying: "This intervention was highly necessary for public morality, but it is
certainly without precedent in the history of international relations. The step
taken by M. Giscard d'Estaing was intended to demonstrate with what gravity
France looks upon the situation. The intervention of the French head of state
has communicated
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 313 |
Forward |
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