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Klarsfeld warns of delay in trying war criminals
Jerusalem Post July 4, 1975 By ERNIE MEYER Jerusalem Post Reporter BEATE KLARSFELD yesterday accused the German judiciary of using delaying tactics in bringing to court the 23 former Gestapo and police officials who can now be tried under the Franco-German accord on retrials, finally ratified after being delayed itself for |four years. Mrs. Klarsfeld told The Jerusalem Post yesterday that the cases, which stem from the deportation of 100,000 Jews from France in 1942, will ultimately be beyond the reach of the law, when even the once-extended statute of limitations expires in 1979. "After that date, Eichmann, or even Hitler himself could walk the streets of German towns and nobody would lift a finger against them," she said. "I know that unless we exert the same pressure on public opinion as we did to get the retrial accord ratified, the 23, who include Kurt Lischka, Herbert Hagen and Hein-rich Illers, will never be tried," she added. Several weeks ago eight Jewish members of the French League against Racism and Anti-Semitism went to Cologne and smashed the windows of the grain import firm which employs Lischka. Two of them were arrested and in quick trial received six and eight-week jail sentences, which were suspended. This Tuesday, another group, including a well-known Paris rabbi and a 60-year old woman who survived Auschwitz, demonstrated in front of the same office, smashed the windows again and tossed smoke bombs into the premises. All the demonstrators were arrested and are to be held in custody till their trial comes up in eight days. "While German justice drags its feet on cases involving the murder of thousands, It can act promptly and severely where some broken windows are concerned," Mrs. Klarsfeld said bitterly. She arrived in Jerusalem on Wednesday at the invitation of Am Oved, the publishers who are bring-ing out a Hebrew translation of her autobiography. In August, Mrs. Klarsfeld will go on her first visit to the U.S. where the Vanguard Press is publishing an English translation of her book and where she will be a guest of Hadassah in San Francisco. |
