Home Up One Level What's New? Q & A Short Essays Holocaust Denial Guest Book Donations Multimedia Links

The Holocaust History Project.
The Holocaust History Project.

WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
 
 
Previous Page Back  Contents  Contents Page 83 Home Page Home Page  Forward Next Page 
     
smile vanished. My arm was raised and, like the others, I was shouting what once I was the only one to shout: "Sieg heil!" and "Kiesinger is a Nazi." Now these taunts were harassing the Chancellor, even in so reactionary a city as Oldenburg. Kiesinger looked at me as if he wanted to say something, then made a feeble gesture of dismissal. He shook his head and went toward the hotel kitchens, obliged to use the service entrance.

A journalist accredited to Bonn told me: "Kiesinger's friends have advised him on several occasions to arrange a meeting with 'that woman' so that he might reach an understanding with her. But Kiesinger always replied: 'There's no possibility of an understanding with her."

July 24. I went to Baden-Baden, then to Frankfurt, where I witnessed the fiercest clash yet between the shock troops of the neo-Nazi NPD and the young APO members. I got out of it safely, but others were not so lucky. Everywhere stretchers were carrying away anti-fascists in particular, their noses or jaws broken by bicycle chains or loaded clubs. Stern, which supported Brandt, made no bones about publishing pictures of the smashed faces of these young German citizens. Confronted by Hitler's direct descendants, they have done what all Germans ought to have done. I drew strength from their example.

In Frankfurt, I also had to straighten out the mess over my book. The publisher was in a tough financial bind. One of his editors told me that there had been a lot of argument over my manuscript, and that it might well not be published by the date we had counted on – which would be a blow to my campaign – or else might not be published as I had written it. I had not received any proofs in spite of several requests for them. Then a young Israeli, Abraham Melzer, who had taken over his father's publishing firm in Darmstadt, wired me that he knew about Heinrich Heine's financial difficulties and offered to buy the manuscript and publish it himself as soon as possible. He, too, could not bear the thought of a Nazi being returned as Chancellor.

Herr Bingel, Heine's manager, refused to give me the proofs, although they were ready. I left his office in a rage and went to the local SDS headquarters, where I explained the situation to some young men and persuaded them to follow me.

We marched on Bingel's office and refused to leave until we got the proofs. I needed only to read the first page to see that my anti-
    
   
 
WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
Previous Page  Back Page 83 Forward  Next Page

   

Last modified: April 3, 2008
Technical/administrative contact: [email protected]