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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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[Lammer…] ding, without doing anything concrete about his impunity? By acting like little children dancing around and shouting or pointing fingers at some big bully but never daring to attack him directly? I don't like that kind of game.

In Lyon, with the support of Marcel Rivière, the local LICA, and Dr. Dugoujon, my plan for a demonstration in Munich was taken into consideration. On the morning of August 17, I discussed it with Le Monde's experts on Germany, and that afternoon Le Monde ran a long story, which ended:
The recent news that the Munich prosecutor has dismissed charges against Klaus Barbie, formerly chief of the Lyon Gestapo, has aroused much protest in France. The LICA has issued a statement that it had learned of the decision with "deep emotion." It is calling on all Resistance associations to stage a big protest demonstration in Lyon on September 3 and 4. A delegation of former Resistance members and deportees is also going to go to Munich in early September…."

The Barbie affair had been launched.

I badgered most of the Paris correspondents of the big German dailies so that each of them would be in a position to write a full story on the subject. These resulted in an enormous number of protests in the Federal Republic. I also telephoned the Munich papers to keep them informed and even more fully supplied with data than the other German papers. As a result, on August 20, Süddeutsche Zeitung's Klaus Arnsperger wrote up the Resistance protest expected in Munich in mid September, and my friend Hans Keppert titled his long story in the Frankfurter Rundschau: "German Justice Assailed Again: France Furious Over Barbie's Release." Keppert said:
The Munich public prosecutor can expect a period of agitation. Associations of French Resistance veterans and the LICA intend to make a protest before the court on Munich's Maxburgszrise. They are now sending letters to the Munich public prosecutor's office, and intend to stage a mass demonstration in Lyon on September 3. Both the conservative and the liberal French newspapers are again expressing doubt that West German courts truly want to put an honorable end to a sad chapter in Franco-German relations….

I went back to Lyon on August 31 to spur the organizing of a delegation. September 13 was the date decided upon. The local
     
   
 
WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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