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The Holocaust History Project.
The Holocaust History Project.

WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
 
 
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Committee told me he was present when Ulbricht was informed about my slapping the West German Chancellor.

"It was the anniversary of the Soviet Revolution, November 7. We were having a meeting in Ulbricht's office when a secretary interrupted to whisper to Ulbricht that you had just insulted Kiesinger. I clearly remember his remark: 'She's a brave woman. We ought to support her.'"

The favoritism shown me, more or less to the irritation of the West German Communist Party, was thus due to Ulbricht's attitude.

In the past two years, however, I had become far too used to open defiance to feel completely at ease in any political atmosphere. The compliments, the friendly smiles, and the disarming words addressed to me by the East German officials made me feel good, but they did not alter my conviction that here in the heart of the "Socialist State of the German nation" I represented neither of the two ideologies. So far as I was concerned, the German nation, because of being divided, could find expression only in terms of political morality.

Still, it was a splendid occasion, the kind young girls dream of. Movies were taken of me dancing with a snowy haired Soviet general – Chuikov, I think – whose uniform was encrusted with gold braid and studded with decorations. The little six-year-old German girl who used to stare in terror at the "Cossacks" invading the village of Sandau, where my mother and I had taken refuge in April 1945, would never have imagined that one day she would be dancing with one of the Red Army chiefs. Total commitment to a cause is impossible; there is always at least one chink through which one contemplates, with a certain mild fascination, one's own adventure.

Toward the end of 1969, I decided to deal with subjects other than French problems in my articles for DVZ. I left for The Hague, where the summit conference of the Six was being held, for I wanted to be present when Brandt made his grand entrance on the European scene to make the Dutch aware that German youth was behind the Chancellor.

The first inter-German summit meeting was to take place on March 19 at Erfurt, in East Germany. I was determined to be present on this unprecedented occasion, but my accreditation from
    
   
 
WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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