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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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Page 315 |
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The court explodes. Our friends have risen and start
up the Marseillaise. There are shouts of "Assassin! Nazi!" Jean
Pierre-Bloch, a former cabinet member under General de Gaulle, is seized by the
throat and beaten by a guard. Police enter the courtroom in numbers. The
session dissolves in total dismay. In France, and even in Germany, the press
reaction is extraordinary. Now all eyes are on the trial.
Fourth
session, Tuesday, July 2. Lischka completes his testimony. Marinsky recalls
how Lischka reacted when we demonstrated in his office in May 1973. "Just like
the good old days, Obersturmbannführer, you with a pistol and a Jew with
his face to the wall."
JUDGE: "I must warn you once more that you
must address the witness with all the respect due to the court. No more
questions like that."
MARINSKY: "Yes, I forgot myself.... I have to keep
remembering that people here don't like to be reminded of the good old days."
In a calmer atmosphere two French witnesses, Georges Wellers
and Joseph Billig, are called to the stand. De Somoskoey, more cautious after
reading the morning papers, exhibits the patience of an angel. These two
witnesses are very important. In the course of three years Wellers saw tens of
thousands of Jews transferred from Drancy, the anteroom of Death, to the gas
chambers of Auschwitz. He tells how thousands of children were led lamentably
to an atrocious death.
Joseph Billig gives a masterly presentation of
Lischka's career. Of course, since there are no noisy incidents, practically
none of these essential depositions are reported in the German press. We will
have to stir up some commotion tomorrow to break this silence.
Fifth
session, Wednesday, July 3. The climax of the trial is reached. Returning
to the intervention of Giscard d'Estaing, the judge terms it intolerable. The
lawyer appointed by the court to defend me suddenly rises and stigmatizes the
gesture of the President of the Republic, "a pressure tactic reminiscent of the
Nazi era." I rise and protest: "Herr Jochum is not my attorney, he is Herr de
Somoskoey's," and I praise the intervention of Giscard d'Estaing as desired and
approved by so many Frenchmen.
The first witness of the day is
René Clavel. He will turn out to be the last of my witnesses. For more
than an hour, impetuously and relentlessly, he puts the trial on trial. With
his pitiless dis […agreeable]
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 315 |
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