Beate Klarsfeld is a German-French journalist. She became known primarily for her work in uncovering and investigating Nazi crimes. Together with her French husband Serge Klarsfeld, her detailed documentation work has helped to track down numerous Nazi war criminals who had been previously living undetected, including Klaus Barbie. She got famous for slapping the former German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU) publicly in 1968 for having been member of Hitler’s party NSDAP.
“I view your project, Antifascist Europe, as a really great and above all highly necessary undertaking. In recent years in particular, we have witnessed a rise in the activities of nationalist and neo-fascist forces in society. This radicalism does great damage to democracy and the credibility of our democratic institutions.
Under the cover of free speech and guaranteeing the rights of minorities, we are seeing a growing tendency towards rejecting the values of democratic government. In the age of digitalization, radical minorities are using the capabilities of social networks to spread hatred and intolerance across national borders – making these social networks into antisocial networks.
One of the most frightening things is that some of the individuals involved in these circles actually work for the state itself; including judges, police officers, and military personnel. It is also notable how lax authorities have been in their approach to unregistered and banned demonstrations by the COVID-deniers of the “Querdenker” movement and other groups and splinter groups from the right-wing spectrum.
Meanwhile, we see a striking contrast in the rigorous and at times utterly brutal response of the police when it comes to “protecting” a registered demonstration run by far-right groups or parties from democratic counter-demonstrations. The double standards that apply to these matters in public discourse could hardly be more striking.
I really have nothing but praise for your project, and offer you my full and wholehearted support. If this work is able to bring home these ominous developments to a larger public and thereby exert greater pressure on those in power, then it is a very welcome development.
I wish you and your project all the success in the world.
Kind regards,
Beate Klarsfeld”