Noted Nazi-hunters to speak at CCJCC book fest

This fall, Serge Klarsfeld was awarded with one of France's highest honors. On Sept. 26, the longtime French Nazi-hunter was named an officer of the Legion of Honor, for "outstanding contributions to mankind."

"Each of your battles has been waged in the memory of your father and all the victims of the Holocaust, which you miraculously escaped," said President Jacques Chirac, when bestowing the award.

The award is further proof that France has made huge strides in accepting responsibility for the Vichy regime during World War II and its collaboration with Nazi Germany, Klarsfeld maintains.

"I am very satisfied," he said, in an interview from his office in Paris.

Klarsfeld, 65, and his wife, Beate, 61, will speak about their 30 years "in the field of memory and justice," as he put it, on Sunday evening, Nov. 12 at the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center in Walnut Creek. The event is part of the Contra Costa County Jewish Book Festival.

The Romanian-born Klarsfeld was 8 when his father was deported to Auschwitz, where he died. The child and his mother escaped by hiding in a closet.

The Klarsfelds are especially known for a few events.

In 1967, Beate Klarsfeld, who is German-born and not Jewish, slapped the German chancellor, Kurt-George Kiesinger in the face. Kiesinger had been involved with Nazi propaganda in the war. Her shouting "Nazi" at him and slapping him were the beginning of the end of his political career.

The Klarsfelds were also celebrated for tracking down Klaus Barbie in 1972, who was living in Lima, Peru. Known as "the butcher of Lyons," Barbie was responsible for sending more than 7,000 French Jews and 4,000 non-Jews to their deaths.

Once he was identified, he fled to Bolivia and then was caught. France extradited him, and with Serge Klarsfeld serving as the lead attorney, Barbie received a life sentence.

The Klarsfelds were instrumental in bringing Maurice Papon to trial in 1988 for ordering the arrest of 1,560 Jews when he was secretary-general of the Bordeaux prefect's office. He was 87 at the time.

But that is likely to be the last such trial, Klarsfeld said.

"There are some cases that can happen when you learn that such an old man is living somewhere in a country, and that he took part in killings or the organizations, but I doubt we will find more," he said.

The last will be the trial in absentia of Aloise Bruner, who was the head of Drancy, the deportation camp outside Paris. He is believed to be living in Syria.

In the last decade, the Klarsfelds have been spending most of their time working on two books.

"French Children of the Holocaust" was published by New York University Press and was made into a traveling exhibit.

Klarsfeld also wrote a book about the gas chambers at Auschwitz and how they worked, called "Witness: Images of Auschwitz."

"It was the first book about how they operated: the technique and operation," he said.

Also in the last few years, Klarsfeld said, he was able to get life indemnity for all the French children who were under 21 when they lost their parents.

The money will come from a fund that Klarsfeld calls "a memory foundation."

"Whatever their nationality, they can receive from the French government the equivalent of $450 dollars a month. France is the only place in the world except Germany that took such a step," he said. "It's something extraordinary."

Klarsfeld currently has a four-book contract with a major French publisher. The first book will be a republication of a reference work he published 17 years ago about the role of the Vichy government in the Final Solution.

The second and third will each be 1,300 pages, and will track the fate of the French Jews through documents Klarsfeld has obtained from newly opened French archives. The fourth will be a photography book of the children of France who were killed, similar to the American version.

"These four books together, published by a great publisher, are a guarantee that what is most important about the Shoah will remain and be known by the public at large," Klarsfeld said. "I believe that it makes a very powerful set of books, and that many people, schools and libraries will buy them all at the same time."

Speaking of his life's work, he said, "We do not speak as intellectuals but as people who did something on the spot. There's a difference."