Klarsfeld, Beate (1939–)

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Klarsfeld, Beate (1939–)

German-born French Nazi-hunter. Born Beate Auguste Künzel in Berlin, Germany, Feb 13, 1939; dau. of Kurt Künzel and Helene (Scholz) Künzel; m. Jewish Holocaust survivor Serge Klarsfeld, 1963; children: Lida Klarsfeld; Arno Klarsfeld.

With husband, exposed former Nazis, including the infamous Klaus Barbie; began career in Paris with French-German Youth Service; incensed that a former Nazi occupied the highest political post in West Germany, provoked several incidents against Kurt Georg Kiesinger (1968) and penned a series of articles on his Nazi links in Paris newspaper Combat; because of this, was fired from job at French-German Youth Service (1967); confronted Kiesinger from visitors' gallery of West Germany's Parliament, the Bundestag (1968), then slapped him on another occasion, a slap heard around the world (Kiesinger was defeated at the polls the following year); with husband, sought justice in the cases of over 1,000 Nazi bureaucrats who had been tried, but not punished, for crimes they committed in France during WWII; after many years of agitation, saw West Germany and France ratify an extradition treaty making it possible for the French to punish Nazi war criminals (1975).

See also Beate Klarsfeld, Wherever They May Be! (Trans. by Monroe Stearns and Natalie Gerardi, Vanguard, 1975); and Women in World History.