Beyond the fact that Bellt Krasfeld could not have imagined that the only slap in the face of her life would not only become a milestone event in Germany's reflection on World War II, but also that she would receive widespread attention. On November 7, 1968, at the congress of the Federal Union of Religious Democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany, Byatt, who was a journalist, suddenly rushed to the podium and slapped the then West German Chancellor Georg Kissinger with all his might, and shouted: "Nazis!".Nazis!Must resign!”
This sudden change caught the West German Chancellor, who was talking, off guard, and the guards sitting in the first row rushed up and grabbed Beate, although she was released on the same day. But the following year, the authorities arrested her for "violently assaulting a public official" and sentenced her to one year in prison without bail.
In court, she questioned the judge: "Is it violence to impose a Nazi chancellor on Germany?"That's the real violence!Under the pressure of **, she was eventually released after serving four months in prison. As for why she slapped Kissinger at that time, Beirut said that she had actually prepared for this slap.
Beate was born in Germany in 1939 to a family of **Christians, and his father was a soldier in Nazi Germany. She had no idea about the Nazis as a child, and it wasn't until she met her husband that she began to learn about that history.
In 1960, at the age of twenty-one, Beate met her future husband, Serge Krasfeld, while attending a Franco-German youth exchange program in Paris. Serge was Jewish, born in Romania and later emigrated to France with his parents. When he was eight years old, Serge's father was arrested by the SS, and he, his mother, and his sister survived by hiding behind a wall in their home, and his father died in Auschwitz.
Although Serge has never forgotten what happened to his father, for a long time after World War II, people barely talked about that history. In the 50s of the 20th century, there was also no such history in the textbooks, and until the 70s, it was taboo to talk about the Nazis at home.
What happened to her husband's family made Beatt realize: "Germany must be responsible for that history, and I myself have the responsibility and obligation to find out the truth about the genocide!"And many people who served the Nazis not only did not receive any punishment, but also got a very high position, and their lives were also very superior, just like Georg Kissinger, who was the deputy director of the broadcasting bureau of Nazi Germany, and the main assistant to Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany, such a veritable Nazi became the chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, which made me very angry, and issued a solemn ** at that time. I believe that although I live in France, I am still a member of Germany, and I have to take on the responsibility of history. ”
Beate and her husband studied many historical archives in detail, and later wrote an article that was published in a French newspaper that tended to be left-liberal. But it was also because of the publication of this article that she was dismissed from the organization where she worked. Although a journalist also sent the article to a number of German parliamentarians, there was no reaction from those people. At that time, only two writers, Günter Grass and Heinly Böll, were elected chancellors in Germany. But even so, Beate still has a firm belief: Kissinger, the Nazi prime minister, must be ousted, all Nazis must be brought out, and they must be punished by the law.
Beat's slap and subsequent imprisonment sent shockwaves through German society, and she impassionedly said in an interview: "I just slapped the Nazi chancellor, but I had to suffer the injustice of being imprisoned, and he committed so many crimes that he could get away with it." I strongly appeal to every German with a conscience that the time has come to wake up. If the Nazis are allowed to continue at large, the tragedy of history will repeat itself, the future of Germany will be thrown into chaos, and the country's good hopes will be lost!”
Her tireless efforts finally forced Kissinger to fall in 1969, and Brandt became the new chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. In December 1970, after laying a wreath in front of the monument to the Jewish Ghetto uprising in Warsaw, Brandt suddenly knelt down spontaneously to observe a moment of silence in memory of the victims killed during the Nazi German invasion. This move meant Germany's liberation and a new start. Subsequently, historical reflection on the Nazi period also spread in Germany.
Béat and her husband dedicated the rest of their lives to tracking down the Nazis. They successively went to Poland, Austria, the Middle East, and South America to track down the executioners of the big ** and send dozens of Nazi war criminals to trial. Although they have been threatened with death countless times, they have not been shaken in the slightest.
Nearly half a century of tracking down the Nazis has given Beatt and her husband great honor. In 1986, their story was made into the film The Nazi Chaser. In 2012, Béatt was nominated as a candidate for the German candidacy and was awarded the Order of the French League and the German Federal Cross of Merit, the highest honour. In 2015, the memoir "Memory", co-authored by the Bellats, was published. In this regard, Beirut sighed: "Some people say that my slap not only went down in history, but also gave me a great honor, and some people said that I have achieved fame and should rest." But I think that as long as the remnants of the Nazis remain, I will fight until the end of my life. ”