Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld, sentenced yesterday by a Cologne court to a two-month suspended prison sentence, charged German justice here today with “injustice and lack of determination in pursuing Nazi war criminals.” Klarsfeld returned to Paris last night from Cologne where a criminal court imposed the two-month sentence for having tried to kidnap former Paris gestapo chief Kurt Lishka in March 1971.
The Cologne court issued an arrest order after the unsuccessful kidnap attempt which was served to Klarsfeld last week when he came to Frankfurt to ask the local state’s attorney for criminal proceedings against Fritz Merdsche who served during the Nazi occupation as gestapo chief in the city of Orleans.
Klarsfeld said he had gone to Frankfurt “in the name of countless Jewish children who could not come. They have been arrested and murdered by Lishka.” He added, “We act not out of vengeance but guided by a sense of justice.”
Jewish and resistance organizations in France have energetically protested against Klarsfeld’s symbolic sentence. Protest letters and petitions have been sent to the West German Embassy here. In Israel, a protest was lodged with the German Ambassador by the Public Council for the Support of Beate Klarsfeld. Serge’s wife, who has also been involved in hunting down Nazi war criminals.
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