Serge and Beate Klarsfeld
Encyclopedia
Serge and Beate (born 13 February 1939, Berlin, Germany) Klarsfeld are activists known for engaging in Holocaust documentation and anti-Nazi
activism. They were involved in finding Klaus Barbie
, René Bousquet
, Jean Leguay
, Maurice Papon
, and Paul Touvier
to seek prosecution for their war crimes.
In 1984, they were awarded France
's Legion of Honour
by President Mitterrand
.
In 1986, their story was adapted for a television movie starring Tom Conti
, Farrah Fawcett
, and Geraldine Page
.
in France
. In 1943, his father was arrested by the SS
in Nice
during a roundup ordered by Alois Brunner
, and he was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp
, where he was killed.
Young Serge was cared for in a home for Jewish children operated by the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) organization; his mother and sister also survived the war in Vichy France
, helped by the underground French Resistance
beginning in late 1943.
Beate was born Beate Künzel, the daughter of a Christian, German-born, regular Wehrmacht
soldier. In 1960, she went to Paris as an au pair
girl, where she was confronted with the consequences of the Holocaust. Later she went on to work for the Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk (Franco-German Alliance for Youth).
Serge and Beate were married in 1963 and made their home in Paris
. Their son, Arno Klarsfeld, born 1965, is a human rights
attorney, and he worked with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy
, during Sarkozy's tenure as minister of the interior.
, for his involvement in Nazi propaganda during the Third Reich. At that time, several leading West German politicians had Nazi backgrounds, but for the first two decades after the war, that had been conveniently forgotten. She gained international attention when she slapped Kiesinger during a party convention in 1968. That evening, Beate Klarsfeld was sentenced to one year in prison for insulting the Chancellor and for the premeditated infliction of bodily harm. In 1969, the basic punishment upheld the original opinion of the court but was reduced to four months probation in a "merciful judgement," as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung stated. At that time, Horst Mahler
, now a Holocaust denier, was her attorney.
by the Polish authorities and deported for having protested against what she perceived as Polish state antisemitism (which was officially described as anti-Zionism
in the Soviet bloc). This was considered as a direct insult to the Polish socialist state and to Polish nationhood; she was accused of being a German spy trying to cause uproar in the People's Republic of Poland
.
, a former Gestapo
chief from Cologne
, West Germany
, and hand him over to the French authorities (his prosecution in Germany being prevented by legal technicalities resulting from a prior conviction). The Klarsfelds were convicted of felony charges and sentenced to two months in prison in 1974. Following international protests, the sentence was suspended. This incident and later activities by the Klarsfelds and by descendants of Lischka's victims eventually resulted in a revision of the legal situation and, in 1980, in Lischka's felony conviction and sentence.
on 9 July 1979. No one was in the car when the bomb detonated, and no one was injured in the blast. Individuals purporting to represent the Nazi ODESSA
claimed responsibility for the attack (though this is doubtful) and demanded that the Klarsfelds stop pursuing (former) Nazis.
Kurt Waldheim
, elected President of Austria
in 1986 amid allegations that he covered up his war time activities as an officer in the Wehrmacht
.
Beate Klarsfeld was arrested and deported from Syria
in 1991 after she traveled to Damascus to publicize Syria's harboring of Alois Brunner
, who, as commander of the Drancy internment camp
outside Paris from June 1943 to August 1944, was responsible for sending some 140,000 European Jews to the gas chambers. Brunner was condemned in absentia in France in 2001 to a life sentence for crimes against humanity.
In 1996, the Klarsfelds joined the outcry against Radovan Karadžić
and Ratko Mladić
for alleged war crimes and genocide
in the former Yugoslavia
.
In December 2009, Serge defied an existing consensus within the Jewish community by saying that the beatification of Pope Pius XII was an internal matter of the Church and that Jews should not get too involved in the process.
(Association of the sons and daughters of Jews deported from France) or FFDJF, which is responsible for defending the cause of the descendants of deportees. In 1981, the association inaugurated a memorial in Israel of deported French Jews which bears the name, date and place of birth of 80,000 French victims of the Nazi extermination. About 80,000 trees form a forest of remembrance.
Their work on behalf of sons and daughters of deportees include formal recognition by President Jacques Chirac
in a 1995 speech http://www.elysee.fr/elysee/francais/interventions/discours_et_declaration/1995/juillet/allocution_de_m_jacques_chirac_president_de_la_republique_prononcee_lors_des_ceremonies_commemorant_la_grande_rafle_des_16_et_17_juillet_1942-paris.2503.html acknowledging the responsibility of France
for the plight of Jews during the Second World War and a law (2000-657 of 13 July 2000) establishing a remedy for orphans whose parents were victims of anti-Semitic persecution. Serge Klarsfeld is also Vice-President of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah
.
On July 7, 2010, Serge Klarsfeld was awarded the title of
commandeur de la Légion d'honneur by Prime Minister François Fillon at Hôtel Matignon, the official residence of France's
Prime Minister.
turned the request down.
and she was a French citizen, the court had no jurisdiction over her. West Berlin at that time was governed by the Quadripartite Agreement between the Four Powers and not West Germany. The German courts there could try only German nationals).
The documentary La traque des nazis regarding Simon Wiesenthal
's and the Klarsfelds' history appeared in 2007.
In 2008, the drama La traque, written by Alexandra Deman and Laurent Jaoui and directed by Laurent Jaoui, was made about the true story of the Klarsfelds.
1986 film
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
activism. They were involved in finding Klaus Barbie
Klaus Barbie
Nikolaus 'Klaus' Barbie was an SS-Hauptsturmführer , Gestapo member and war criminal. He was known as the Butcher of Lyon.- Early life :...
, René Bousquet
René Bousquet
René Bousquet was a high-ranking French civil servant, who served as secretary general to the Vichy regime police from May 1942 to 31 December 1943.-Biography:...
, Jean Leguay
Jean Leguay
Jean Leguay was a high-ranking French civil servant complicit in the deportation of Jews from France.During the Vichy regime, Leguay was second-in-command to René Bousquet, general secretary of the National police in Paris. After the war he became president of Warner Lambert, Inc...
, Maurice Papon
Maurice Papon
Maurice Papon was a French civil servant, industrial leader and Gaullist politician, who was convicted for crimes against humanity for his participation in the deportation of over 1600 Jews during World War II when he was secretary general for police of the Prefecture of Bordeaux.Papon also...
, and Paul Touvier
Paul Touvier
Paul Touvier was a French Nazi collaborator. In 1994, he was the first Frenchman convicted of crimes against humanity for his actions in Vichy France.- Early life :...
to seek prosecution for their war crimes.
In 1984, they were awarded France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
's Legion of Honour
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
by President Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
.
In 1986, their story was adapted for a television movie starring Tom Conti
Tom Conti
Thomas "Tom" Conti is a Scottish actor, theatre director and novelist.-Early life:Born Thomas Conti in Paisley, Renfrewshire, he was brought up Roman Catholic, but he considers himself anti-religious...
, Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...
, and Geraldine Page
Geraldine Page
Geraldine Sue Page was an American actress. Although she starred in at least two dozen feature films, she is primarily known for her celebrated work in the American theater...
.
Early years
Serge Klarsfeld, a Romanian Jew, spent the war yearsWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. In 1943, his father was arrested by the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
during a roundup ordered by Alois Brunner
Alois Brunner
Alois Brunner is an Austrian Nazi war criminal. Brunner was Adolf Eichmann's assistant, and Eichmann referred to Brunner as his "best man." As commander of the Drancy internment camp outside Paris from June 1943 to August 1944, Brunner is held responsible for sending some 140,000 European Jews to...
, and he was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
, where he was killed.
Young Serge was cared for in a home for Jewish children operated by the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) organization; his mother and sister also survived the war in Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
, helped by the underground French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
beginning in late 1943.
Beate was born Beate Künzel, the daughter of a Christian, German-born, regular Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
soldier. In 1960, she went to Paris as an au pair
Au pair
An au pair is a domestic assistant from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a small monetary allowance for personal use...
girl, where she was confronted with the consequences of the Holocaust. Later she went on to work for the Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk (Franco-German Alliance for Youth).
Serge and Beate were married in 1963 and made their home in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Their son, Arno Klarsfeld, born 1965, is a human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
attorney, and he worked with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
, during Sarkozy's tenure as minister of the interior.
Early activism in Germany
In 1966 Beate was fired from her job at the Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk (Franco-German Alliance for Youth), simply for denouncing the West German Chancellor, Kurt Georg KiesingerKurt Georg Kiesinger
Kurt Georg Kiesinger was a German politician affiliated with the CDU and Chancellor of West Germany from 1 December 1966 until 21 October 1969.-Early career and wartime activities:...
, for his involvement in Nazi propaganda during the Third Reich. At that time, several leading West German politicians had Nazi backgrounds, but for the first two decades after the war, that had been conveniently forgotten. She gained international attention when she slapped Kiesinger during a party convention in 1968. That evening, Beate Klarsfeld was sentenced to one year in prison for insulting the Chancellor and for the premeditated infliction of bodily harm. In 1969, the basic punishment upheld the original opinion of the court but was reduced to four months probation in a "merciful judgement," as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung stated. At that time, Horst Mahler
Horst Mahler
Horst Mahler is a former German lawyer and advocate of radical ideologies. He once was an extreme-left militant, a founding member of the Red Army Faction. Subsequently he became a Maoist and later shifted to the extreme-right. He was for a time a member of the National Democratic Party of Germany...
, now a Holocaust denier, was her attorney.
Deportation from Poland
In August 1970, Beate was arrested in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
by the Polish authorities and deported for having protested against what she perceived as Polish state antisemitism (which was officially described as anti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionistic views or opposition to the state of Israel. The term is used to describe various religious, moral and political points of view in opposition to these, but their diversity of motivation and expression is sufficiently different that "anti-Zionism" cannot be...
in the Soviet bloc). This was considered as a direct insult to the Polish socialist state and to Polish nationhood; she was accused of being a German spy trying to cause uproar in the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
.
Kurt Lischka
In 1971, Serge and Beate tried to abduct Kurt LischkaKurt Lischka
Kurt Werner Lischka was an SS Lieutenant Colonel and Gestapo chief assigned to Paris in Occupied France during World War II....
, a former Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
chief from Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, and hand him over to the French authorities (his prosecution in Germany being prevented by legal technicalities resulting from a prior conviction). The Klarsfelds were convicted of felony charges and sentenced to two months in prison in 1974. Following international protests, the sentence was suspended. This incident and later activities by the Klarsfelds and by descendants of Lischka's victims eventually resulted in a revision of the legal situation and, in 1980, in Lischka's felony conviction and sentence.
Attack on the Klarsfelds
The Klarsfelds were the targets of car bombing at their home in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
on 9 July 1979. No one was in the car when the bomb detonated, and no one was injured in the blast. Individuals purporting to represent the Nazi ODESSA
ODESSA
The ODESSA, from the German Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, meaning “Organization of Former SS Members,” is believed to have been an international Nazi network set up toward the end of World War II by a group of SS officers...
claimed responsibility for the attack (though this is doubtful) and demanded that the Klarsfelds stop pursuing (former) Nazis.
Later activism
The Klarsfelds campaigned against former United Nations Secretary-GeneralUnited Nations Secretary-General
The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat of the United Nations, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations....
Kurt Waldheim
Kurt Waldheim
Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992...
, elected President of Austria
President of Austria
The President of Austria is the federal head of state of Austria. Though theoretically entrusted with great power by the constitution, in practice the President acts, for the most part, merely as a ceremonial figurehead...
in 1986 amid allegations that he covered up his war time activities as an officer in the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
.
Beate Klarsfeld was arrested and deported from Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
in 1991 after she traveled to Damascus to publicize Syria's harboring of Alois Brunner
Alois Brunner
Alois Brunner is an Austrian Nazi war criminal. Brunner was Adolf Eichmann's assistant, and Eichmann referred to Brunner as his "best man." As commander of the Drancy internment camp outside Paris from June 1943 to August 1944, Brunner is held responsible for sending some 140,000 European Jews to...
, who, as commander of the Drancy internment camp
Drancy internment camp
The Drancy internment camp of Paris, France, was used to hold Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps. 65,000 Jews were deported from Drancy, of whom 63,000 were murdered including 6,000 children...
outside Paris from June 1943 to August 1944, was responsible for sending some 140,000 European Jews to the gas chambers. Brunner was condemned in absentia in France in 2001 to a life sentence for crimes against humanity.
In 1996, the Klarsfelds joined the outcry against Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžic
Radovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician. He is detained in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen, accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the Siege of Sarajevo, as well as ordering the Srebrenica massacre.Educated as a...
and Ratko Mladić
Ratko Mladić
Ratko Mladić is an accused war criminal and a former Bosnian Serb military leader. On May 31, 2011, Mladić was extradited to The Hague, where he was processed at the detention center that holds suspects for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia...
for alleged war crimes and genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
in the former Yugoslavia
Former Yugoslavia
The former Yugoslavia is a term used to describe the present day states which succeeded the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....
.
In December 2009, Serge defied an existing consensus within the Jewish community by saying that the beatification of Pope Pius XII was an internal matter of the Church and that Jews should not get too involved in the process.
Other achievements in France
In France they created in 1979 l'Association des fils et filles des déportés juifs de FranceSons and daughters of Jewish Deportees from France
The Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France is a French association of descendants of Jews deported from France during the Nazi German occupation of France , during the Holocaust. Serge Klarsfeld founded this organization in 1979 and continues to serve as president of the organization...
(Association of the sons and daughters of Jews deported from France) or FFDJF, which is responsible for defending the cause of the descendants of deportees. In 1981, the association inaugurated a memorial in Israel of deported French Jews which bears the name, date and place of birth of 80,000 French victims of the Nazi extermination. About 80,000 trees form a forest of remembrance.
Their work on behalf of sons and daughters of deportees include formal recognition by President Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
in a 1995 speech http://www.elysee.fr/elysee/francais/interventions/discours_et_declaration/1995/juillet/allocution_de_m_jacques_chirac_president_de_la_republique_prononcee_lors_des_ceremonies_commemorant_la_grande_rafle_des_16_et_17_juillet_1942-paris.2503.html acknowledging the responsibility of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
for the plight of Jews during the Second World War and a law (2000-657 of 13 July 2000) establishing a remedy for orphans whose parents were victims of anti-Semitic persecution. Serge Klarsfeld is also Vice-President of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah
Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah
Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah is a Shoah Foundation that was formed in 2000, with recovered money from the property taken from French Jews during World War II. The Foundation’s mission is to support projects in all areas of history and research into the Shoah, education and transmission,...
.
On July 7, 2010, Serge Klarsfeld was awarded the title of
commandeur de la Légion d'honneur by Prime Minister François Fillon at Hôtel Matignon, the official residence of France's
Prime Minister.
In Germany
In 2009, representatives from Die Linke nominated Beate Klarsfeld for the Federal Cross of Merit. However, Foreign Minister Guido WesterwelleGuido Westerwelle
Guido Westerwelle [] is a German liberal politician, who, since 28 October 2009, has been serving as the Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel, and who was Vice Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011. He is the first openly gay person to hold either of those positions...
turned the request down.
Film treatment
The Klarsfelds' activities of finding and pursuing Nazi war criminals was made the object of a 1986 film entitled Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story. The movie showed that the one-year sentence imposed upon Beate Klarsfeld could not be enforced upon her under a technicality: as the incident took place in West BerlinWest Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
and she was a French citizen, the court had no jurisdiction over her. West Berlin at that time was governed by the Quadripartite Agreement between the Four Powers and not West Germany. The German courts there could try only German nationals).
The documentary La traque des nazis regarding Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal KBE was an Austrian Holocaust survivor who became famous after World War II for his work as a Nazi hunter....
's and the Klarsfelds' history appeared in 2007.
In 2008, the drama La traque, written by Alexandra Deman and Laurent Jaoui and directed by Laurent Jaoui, was made about the true story of the Klarsfelds.
External links
1986 film