Happy Klarsfeld

Beate Klarsfeld (born Happy Künzel, the February 13rd 1939 with Berlin) is militant memory of the Shoah. She is married with Serge Klarsfeld, with which she has two children: Arno (1965) and Lida (1973).

She was characterized by her activism against the former Nazis who wanted to remain with the capacity in Germany. In particular, during a meeting of the CDU party, she slapped the chancellor of FR of Germany, Kurt-Georg Kiesinger, by treating it of Nazi. He was eliminated from the German political life. Then it attacked Ernst Achenbach, former assistant of Otto Abetz, which had transmitted the orders of Hitler directly to the Pétain Marshal, and who was candidate to become European Commissioner: the German government had to give up this nomination. These actions were especially due to its personal initiative, and had a very strong incidence on the German political life with the turning of the Sixties and sixty ten.

It continued its action, with the assistance of Serge, while attacking in the media and by demonstrations, Nazi criminals who had been condemned by contumacy in France, in particular: Kurt Lischka, S virulent anti-semite, which directed the great raid of the Jews to Paris in July 1942; Herbert Hagen, S theorist of the anti-semitism, which had had under its orders Adolf Eichmann before the war in a service of propaganda anti-semite within the S, and which organized the deportations of the Jews of Bordeaux as of January 1942. Then, chief of the staff of, it had in load the policy of execution of hostages; Klaus Barbie, S chief of Gestapo in Lyon, known to have made perish Jean Moulin under torture and to have ordered the deportation of the children of the colony of Izieu.

With the support of the world Jewish Congress, it created the Beate Klarsfeld Foundation whose seat was in New York and took part in many actions, financially constant by American Jewish associations, aiming at maintaining the memory the Holocaust. Then its action is related to that of Serge Klarsfeld, and sometimes even inseparable.

Made knight of the Legion of honor in October 1984, it was promoted officer in April 2007.

Simplified biography

Born in modest milieu, without diploma but on a not very common determination, it decides to come to France at 21 years to escape what appears to him to be its destiny: KKK, initial in German of church, child, and cook, if it does not react. In Paris she knows initially the life tristounette of young girl to the par, but she studies French with heat with the Alliance Fran1caise, and reads to cultivate herself. She becomes acquainted with Serge Klarsfeld whom she marries in November 1963. She enters a cultivated medium then and she becomes there aware of the recent history of Germany and the fate of the Jews during the last world war.

Become bilingual secretary in the Franco-German Office for youth, it publishes a small guide for the German young girls with the par in Paris, which is worth a small celebrity to him and the vindication of certain frameworks of the Office. It is tried by journalism and defines its political position: it is registered with the SPD, because it feels nearer to Willy Brandt, which fought dimensioned republican in Spain, that politicians of the CDU party.

The Kiesinger business

When, following the resignation of the chancellor Ludwig Erhard at the end of 1966, Kiesinger is candidate with the Chancellery, she learns the past Nazi from the candidate by reading the French newspapers which are moved by this candidature. Once Kiesinger promoted chief of a coalition with Willy Brandt (SPD) Foreign Minister, the newspapers keep silent himself, but Beate Klarsfeld takes again the torch of the protest in an article which appears on January 14th, 1967 in Combat: two faces of Germany . She repeats next in March and she is laid off Franco-German Office at the end of August. French justice refuses to rule on this dismissal because the Office is of international law, and Happy Klarsfeld, on councils of German politicians, decides to carry the business on the political plan.

Beate Klarsfeld requests the assistance of personality French policies and that of the Jewish medium engaged in the continuations against the Nazi criminals, in particular it meets Simon Wiesenthal . It finds all the documents which very prove to the implication with high level of Kiesinger in radiophonic propaganda Nazi. Its investigation enables him to highlight the existence of a nebula of networks of mutual aid of former Nazis, and even of old S. She discovers thus that the Franco-German Office for youth sheltered some, and than the chief of the commission of the Office which must rule on its dismissal, Walter Hailer, is a former Nazi. She publishes at the end of 1967 the result of her research in a booklet entitled the truth on Kurt Georg Kiesinger. To increase the pressure on the Kiesinger government, she seeks allies and contacts the student leader of left Rudi Dutschke, which will be victim of an attack, on April 11th, 1968, by an extremist of right-hand side. The death of Rudi will bring a scission of the movement German gauchist, and thereafter, the regrouping around Andréas Baader of the more extremists. (Horst Mahler, lawyer of Happy Klarsfeld, will be among the latter and will be condemned to 14 years of prison.)

It organizes political meetings constant by German intellectuals where it distributes its booklet. It is during one as of these meetings, on May 9th, 1968, where Günter Grass attacks Kiesinger, which, taken by the general excitation, she promises to slap in public the Kiesinger chancellor. It devotes the summer 1968 to a media campaign against Kiesinger; it apostrophizes Kiesinger at the Bundestag; and on Wednesday, November 7, playing the journalist, it succeeds in slapping Kiesinger, by treating it of Nazi, whereas he chairs the Congress of the CDU party.

" Happy the gifleuse" becomes a sulfurous personality on the German political chessboard. It decides to be presented to the elections of September 1969 against Kiesinger, but the SPD refuses the nomination to him and it is registered in the name of a party of extreme left without much audience, the ADF. It conducts a campaign very active and violent against Kiesinger with the assistance of partisans of the extreme left and, if it is largely beaten, Kiesinger which was given gaining in this district acquired to CDU, is too. On the national plan, the party néo Nazi NPD does not obtain a seat with the Bundestag. A coalition SPD FDP names Willy Brandt chancellor.

In fine, it obtains from Willy Brandt the signature of a new Franco-German convention, on February 2nd, 1971, which makes it possible German justice to judge the former Nazis who were condemned by contumacy in France after the war. This convention replaces another of October 29th, 1954, per which France reserved the exclusive right judge them, whereas France against had signed, as an occupying nation, the new constitution of the Federal republic, who prohibited in Germany to extradite criminals so that they are judged abroad. This convention of 1954, in connection with the German constitution guaranteed the impunity of the Nazi criminals in Germany.

The Achenbach business

March 30th, 1970, one learns that Ernst Achenbach, of party FDP, will be proposed, in accordance with agreements SPD-FDP, like German delegate at the Commission of E.E.C. Out, Nazi since 1933, it first was delegated of Abetz in 1940, and, after the interview of Laval and Hitler, it accompanied Laval in Vichy to convince the Pétain Marshal to accept an interview with Hitler. It belonged to the escort in the long voyage from Vichy with Montoir where this interview took place on October 24th, 1940. Achenbach was also in load of radio propaganda in France. For this reason, it had contacts with Kiesinger. But the charge the most serious door on the control of the operations of reprisals following the attacks against German officers in Paris. Beate Klarsfeld shows that, with an aim of preserving the spirit of the collaboration of State, Abetz and its Achenbach assistant made take on the Jews the responsibility for the attacks, and thus justified the operations of deportation towards Auschwitz, in particular the deportation of 2000 Jews, from February 26th to March 3rd, 1943. It was then transferred to Berlin where it worked near to Kiesinger, with which it always preserved contacts after the war.

Beate Klarsfeld makes publish in the French press and the German press a file which presents the career Nazi of Achenbach, and it intervenes with the French, German and Community high authorities political. At the end of May, the German government gives up this nomination.

The Nazis who martyrisèrent France and the Jews

Its research with the CDJC, Information center Jewish contemporary, enables him to study the documents concerning two S which were implied in the extermination of the Jews living in France: Kurt Lischka and Herbert Hagen.

They had profited, after the war, of the indigence of the fourth Republic due to the ceaseless changes of governments, and of the Franco-German convention of 1954.

With the support of Serge Klarsfeld, and militants of the L.I.C.A., she undertakes actions of harassing, of which rocambolesques attempts at removal, which aim to draw the attention of the media to the subject of the impunity of the criminals S.

In fine, they were considered and condemned to Cologne in 1980.

Klaus Barbie

He had been condemned in France by contumacy after the war. Happy and Serge Klarsfeld know well his past by the study of the files present at the CDJC, and they know pertinently that Altmann, which lives in Bolivia, is not other than Barbie. The birth dates of the Altmann children are those of the Barbie children. She learns with the CDJC in July 1971 that the prosecutor of Munich classified an open instruction against Barbie on the request for a German association of victims of the Nazism, whereas the German justice knows which is Altmann. Happy and Serge Klarsfeld undertake a series of actions near the French, German and European authorities, actions supported by the Jewish medium, to obtain the extradition in France of Klaus Barbie. But that will be a length and very hard combat.

They ended up obtaining satisfaction, and Klaus Barbie, in fine, was judged in Lyon in 1987. But all these engagements against old the S attracted hatreds, and the Klarsfeld family had to undergo many threats and escaped from little from an attack by parcel bomb in May 1972.

The Happy Klarsfeld Foundation

The action of Happy Klarsfeld was very followed in the American Jewish mediums, and it acquired there the reputation of hunter of Nazis. These mediums proposed to him to make conferences on hunting for the Nazis and the genocide. It created in 1979 a foundation which bears its name, which has its beginnings was to the 315 Madison Avenue - N.Y. - Room 3303. That enabled him to collect funds in the USA, in particular of Anti-Defamation League (A.D.L.) and of B' nai B' rith Office of New York.

Task sharing between Happy and Serge Klarsfeld

It is certain that at the beginning of their combat against the former Nazis, it is Beate which had the first role of the simple fact that Serge did not speak German and could not make certain research. It is Beate which with beginning of the year 70 undertook also actions in the Eastern European countries where the anti-semitism began again, and which knew the arrivals in inhospitable countries, and East-German, Polish and Czech prisons.

Thereafter, when their action went on France, it could be only Serge who occupied the front of the scene. Thus during the lawsuits of Paul Touvier and Maurice Papon, Beate was held in withdrawal. The dividing line was that of nationality: it was Beate which had the contacts in Germany, in particular with Willy Brandt, and Serge who had the contacts with the Ministers for French Justice and presidents François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac.

Passed the turning of the century, they present their actions on the site of the " Happy Klarsfeld Foundation" as being completely common.

Sources

The information carried by this article comes mainly from the book from Happy KLARSFELD, Everywhere where they will be , special edition 1973 (first edition 1972).

Chronology on the site of the Foundation Klarsfeld
'' Famille Klarsfeld, the father '', Le Monde of November 9th, 2001, Marion Van Renterghem

Random links: