September 26, 2000
Nazi
Hunter Honored by France by MARILYN AUGUST, Associated Press
Writer PARIS (AP) -- Serge
Klarsfeld, a Nazi hunter who refuses to
let France forget its Holocaust victims,
on Tuesday was named Officer of the Legion
of Honor -- the nation's highest
award. Klarsfeld, 65, has crisscrossed
the globe tracking down Nazis. His books
were among the first to recount France's
sordid role in the deportation of Jews
during World War II. He has lobbied
successfully on behalf of Jewish Holocaust
orphans. ''Each of your battles has been waged
in the memory of your father and all the
victims of the Holocaust, which you
miraculously escaped,'' President
Jacques Chirac told a ceremony at
the Elysee palace. Klarsfeld was only 8 when his father
was arrested, deported and died in
Auschwitz. Serge, his mother and sister
escaped the raid by hiding in a
closet. ''Klarsfeld is a man who is deeply
committed to justice, a tireless human
rights advocate,'' [*] said
Chirac, underlining Klarsfeld's
''particularly important'' role in
preparing the complex legal cases against
French wartime militia chief Paul
Touvier and Vichy police official
Maurice Papon. A member of the government-appointed
commission established to study the
confiscation of Jewish assets during the
war, Klarsfeld has compiled comprehensive
lists of the names, addresses, convoy
number and date of deportation of every
Jew shipped from France to Nazi death
camps.![](../../std/dings/square.gif)
* Left:
Professor Robert
Faurisson "Someone
who has provoked the Jewish
community for years should expect
this sort of thing." -Serge
Klarsfeld, as quoted in
Toronto Globe and Mail,
September 18, 1989, issue,
condoning the savage, near-fatal
beating inflicted on Professor
Robert Faurisson while strolling
through a city park near his home
in Vichy, France. |
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