Jeremy Varon (64 page)

215. In a deadly parody of “working through” the Vietnam legacy, President 342

Notes to Pages 195–98

George Bush Sr. declared that he had “kicked the Vietnam Syndrome in the butt”

by waging war in 1991 against Iraq. The Gulf War claimed the lives of perhaps tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and entailed its own atrocities, which the U.S.

government scarcely even acknowledged. See Douglas Kellner,
The Persian Gulf
TV War
(Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1992), and Ramsey Clark and others,
War Crimes: A Report on the United States War Crimes against Iraq
(Washington, D.C.: Maisonneuve Press, 1992).

216. Dellinger,
More Power Than We Know,
168. Hertzberg made a nearly identical point in response to Hayden several years earlier. Hertzberg, “Weather Report,” 6.

217. This tally includes neither the unsolved murder in 1970 of a San Francisco policemen, possibly committed by New Leftists, nor the deaths resulting from the 1981 Brinks robbery, by which point the New Left as such was defunct.

(On the Berkeley killing, see
WUR,
29.) It excludes also those killed by black groups such as the Black Liberation Army, who fall outside my definition of the New Left. Finally, the tally excludes the murders committed by the multiracial Symbionese Liberation Army in the mid 1970s. The SLA, ostensibly a revolutionary organization, repeated the gestures of New Left and Black Power radicalism as virtually pure pathology or farce. On violence in the 1970s, see U.S.

Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws,
Terroristic Activity: Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration
of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws,
93d Cong., 2d sess. [94th Cong., 2d sess.], September 23 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1974 [1975]).

218. Bates,
Rads,
420.

5 . d e a d l y a b s t r a c t i o n

1. On Meinhof’s death, see Commission internationale d’enquête sur la mort d’Ulrike Meinhof,
La Mort d’Ulrike Meinhof: Rapport de la Commission internationale d’enquête
(Paris: F. Maspero, 1979).

2. The RAF knew at the time that Schleyer had a Nazi affiliation and broadcast this fact in explaining why he was kidnapped. It did not, however, know the details of Schleyer’s past. For years thereafter, Schleyer’s biography was a matter of speculation and debate, with the RAF’s supporters condemning Schleyer as an ardent Nazi and its critics stressing Schleyer’s service to the democratic, postwar state. Lutz Hachmeister’s documentary
Schleyer: Eine deutsche
Geschichte
(HMR Produktion, 2003), shown on German television in the summer of 2003, sought to clarify the facts of Schleyer’s life. Hachmeister’s research revealed that Schleyer, born in 1915, became a member of the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) in 1931 and the SS in 1933. He then studied law at the University of Heidelberg, where he became a leader of the student union, and joined the Nazi Party in 1937. After marrying the daughter of a leading SA official and becoming the head of the student union in Prague, he was appointed in 1942

Leiter des Präsidialbüros des Zentralverbands der Industrie für Böhmen und Mähren. Prague was the headquarters of Reinhard Heydrich—the SS Sicherheitsdienst chief and Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia—until Notes to Pages 198–201

343

his assassination. Schleyer served in Prague until the war’s end, gaining experience through his post in economic management. He spent the next three years in the custody of the Americans and then the French for his involvement with the Nazis, and began in 1949 a career in German industry. For Schleyer’s biography, see the film and www.ndr.de/ndr/derndr/presse/pressemappen/2003

0820_schleyer/bio.html.

3. Irmgard Möller restates the charge of murder in “‘Wir meinten es ernst’: Gespräch mit Irmgard Möller über Entstehung, Bedeutung und Fehler der RAF,”

Die Beute,
no. 9 (January 1996). No way exists of determining independently how the inmates died. Most investigations support the thesis of suicide, though no utterly definitive proof exists. I shall speak of the deaths
as if
they were suicides, as this seems most probable. On the investigations into the Stammheim deaths, see Karl-Heinz Weidenhammer,
Selbtsmord oder Mord? Das Todeser-mittlungsverfahren, Baader/Ensslin/Raspe
(Kiel: Neuer Malik, 1988).

4.
Zum Gedanken an die Opfer des Terrorismus
(Bonn: Deutscher Bundestag Presse- und Informationszentrum, 1978), 12.

5. Walter Althammer,
Gegen den Terror
(Stuttgart: Bonn Aktuell, 1978), 57.

6. References to auto fatalities are in Hans Steinert, “Sozialstrukturelle Bedingungen des ‘linken Terrorismus’ der 70er Jahre,” in Fritz Sack, Heinz Steinert, et al.,
Protest und Reaktion,
Analysen zum Terrorismus, vol. 4/2 (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1984), 393, and Eric Kuby, “Früchte der Angst,” in
Der
blinde Fleck: Die Linke, die RAF und der Staat
(Frankfurt a.M.: Neue Kritik, 1987), 25.

7. Heinrich Böll, “Will Ulrike Gnade oder Freies Geleit?”
Spiegel,
no. 3 (January 10, 1972): 54, in Rauball,
Aktuelle Dokumente,
216. See also Frank Grützbach,
Heinrich Böll: Freies Geleit für Ulrike Meinhof
(Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1972).

8. Sebastian Scheerer, “Deutschland: Die ausgebürgerte Linke,” in Henner Hess, Martin Moerings, et al.,
Angriff auf das Herz des Staates: Soziale En-twickling und Terrorismus
(Frankfurt a.M.: Surkamp, 1988), 329, 337.

9. RAF, “Über den bewaffneten Kampf in Westeuropa,” quoted in Scheerer,

“Deutschland: Die ausgebürgerte Linke,” 295.

10. Scheerer, “Deutschland: Die ausgebürgerte Linke,” 333–34.

11. Walter Boelich, “Schleyers Kinder,” in
Jahrbuch Politik 8
(Berlin: Klaus Wagenbach, 1978), 8.

12. Jürgen Bäcker and Horst Mahler, “Zehn Thesen zur RAF,” in
Jahrbuch
Politik 8
(Berlin: Klaus Wagenbach, 1978), 12, 14.

13. Günter Rohrmoser, “Ideologische Ursachen des Terrorismus,” in Iring Fetscher, Günter Rohrmoser, et al.,
Ideologien und Strategien,
Analysen zum Terrorismus, vol. 1 (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1981), 320.

14. Ibid.

15. Scheerer, “Deutschland: Die ausgebürgerte Linke,” 268.

16. Ulrike Meinhof, “Napalm und Pudding,” in
Dokumente einer Rebellion,
81.

17. Tom Vague,
Televisionaries: The Red Army Faction Story, 1963–1993
(Ed-inburgh: AK Press, 1994), 8–9; “Chronologie,” in
Der blinde Fleck,
223.

18. “Chronologie,” in
Der blinde Fleck,
224.

344

Notes to Pages 202–11

19. Vague,
Televisionaries,
13.

20. Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Thorwald Proll, and Horst Söhnlein,
Vor einer solchen Justiz verteidigen wir uns nicht: Schlußwort im Kaufhaus-brandprozeß
(Berlin: Edition Voltaire, 1968), 5–7.

21. Bernward Vesper, “Nachwort,” in ibid., 20.

22. Ibid., 21.

23. Meinhof, “Napalm und Pudding,” in
Dokumente einer Rebellion,
81.

24. “Blow up Amerika, Blow up Berlin,”
833,
no. 59 (May 7, 1970): 11. Following quotations from the same.

25. RAF, “Die rote Armee aufbauen,”
883,
no. 61 (May 22, 1970).

26. Ulrike Meinhof, “‘Natürlich kann geschossen werden,’”
Der Spiegel,
no.

25 (June 5, 1970): 74.

27. RAF, “Die rote Armee aufbauen,”
883,
no. 62 (June 5, 1970).

28. Juergensmeyer,
Terror in the Mind of God,
125–26.

29. Schiller,
“Es war ein harter Kampf,”
51.

30. RAF, “Concept of the Urban Guerrilla,” 36.

31. In a very partial list, drawn from police data, Walter Althammer records forty-seven separate “terror acts,” including bank robberies, between November 1969 and the beginning of May 1972. Althammer,
Gegen den Terror,
41–65.

32. Schiller,
“Es war ein harter Kampf,”
11–19.

33. Böll, “Will Ulrike Gnade oder Freies Geliet?” in Raubell, 214.

34. Ibid., 218.

35. Baumann,
Terror or Love?
95.

36. Aust,
Baader-Meinhof Group,
203.

37. Legal rulings on police conduct are recorded in Althammer,
Gegen den
Terror,
41–65, and “Chronologie,” in
Der blinde Fleck,
223–52.

38. RAF communiqué, “Erklärung vom 20. Mai 1972, Kommando 2. Juni.”

The communiqués, originally published in the German underground press, are printed in English in
Armed Resistance,
57–62, and
RAF
(n.p. [U.K.?]: Patrick Arguello Press, 1979), 1–8. In German, they are in
texte: der RAF,
450–56. I have drawn on both translations, modified by reference to the German, and will name them by their German titles.

39. RAF communiqué, “Erklärung vom 14. Mai 1972, Kommando Petra Schelm.”

40. RAF communiqué, “Erklärung vom 20. Mai 1972, Kommando 2. Juni.”

41. RAF communiqué, “Erklärung vom 16. Mai 1972, Kommando Thomas Weisbecker.”

42. RAF communiqué, “Erklärung vom 29. Mai 1972.”

43. Kommunistischer Bund, “Wem nützen die Bombe bei Springer?”
Unser
Weg
(Hamburg: KB, 1972).

44. RAF communiqué, “Erklärung vom 20. Mai 1972.” RAF’s consterna-tion over the action persisted. At the eventual trial of the RAF’s “hard core,”

Ensslin suggested dubiously that Meinhof had committed the bombing without the group’s knowledge. Aust,
Baader-Meinhof Group,
344.

45. The RAF made the model of a just war explicit when it argued in court in 1976 that the bombings in Frankfurt and Heidelberg were justifiable because the United States had used West Germany as a platform for operations in Viet-Notes to Pages 212–18

345

nam that violated international law. The judge refused to allow evidence in support of the argument, insisting that “the Vietnam War is not the subject of this trial.” Aust,
Baader-Meinhof Group,
358.

46. RAF communiqué, “Erklärung vom 20. Mai 1972, Kommando 2. Juni.”

47.
Neues vom Sozialstaat—Dokumentation zum Teach-in der Roten Hilfe
zur unmittelbaren Unterdrückung durch Polizei und Justiz
(Frankfurt a.M.: Rote Hilfe, 1972), all quotations from 50–51.

48. Ibid., 53.

49. “Sozialistische Politik und Terrorismus,” in Oskar Negt,
Keine Demokratie ohne Sozialismus
(Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 1976), 439.

50. Negt,
Keine Demokratie ohne Sozialismus,
441.

51. Ibid., 445.

52. Baumann,
Terror or Love?
110.

53. Reiche, “Zur Kritik der RAF,” 21.

54. The RAF, its attorneys, Rote Hilfe, and others produced a wealth of material on prison conditions. Key texts include
Folter in der BRD: Zur Situation
der politische Gefangenen,
Kursbuch 32 (Berlin: Rotbuch, 1973);
Vorbereitung
der RAF-Prozesse durch Presse, Polizei und Justiz,
ed. Rote Hilfe (Berlin: Rote Hilfe, 1974); Henning Spangenberg, “Isolationsfolter in westdeutschen Gefängnissen,” in
“Sie wurden uns gerne in Knast begraben”
(Berlin: Asta der Pädagogischen Hochschule Westberlin et al., 1977).

55. Rote Hilfe, ed.,
Bericht über Vernichtungshaft und Isolationsfolter in
Gefängnissen der BRD und Westberlins (1970–74)
(Berlin: Rote Hilfe, 1974), 9–11.

56. Ulrich Preuss, “Strafantrag gegen NRW-Justizminister Posser,” in
Ausgewählte Dokumente der Zeitgeschichte: Bundesrepublick Deutschland (BRD)—

Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF)
(Cologne: GNN Verlagsgesellschaft Politische Berichte, 1987). Documents at www.nadir.org/nadir/archiv/PolitischeStroemungen/

Stadtguerilla+.

57. Ibid.

58. Spangenberg, “Isolationsfolter in westdeutschen Gefängnissen,” 26.

59. “Zu viele Gräber sind auf meinem Weg,”
Stern,
November 23, 1978, 49.

After being released in 1974, Proll fled to England, where she was recaptured in 1978 and returned to Germany for trial.

60. “Brief einer Gefangenen aus dem Toten Trakt,” in Brückner,
Ulrike Marie
Meinhof,
152–54.

61. Schiller,
“Es war ein harter Kampf,”
138–39.

62. Sjef Teuns, “Isolation/Sensorische Deprivation: Die programmierte Folter,” in
Ausgewählte Dokumente.

63. Heinz Brandt, “Zur Isolationshaft—Interview,” in
Küß den Boden der
Freiheit: Texte der Neuen Linken
(Berlin: ID-Archiv, 1991), 340. The term
KZ,
or
Konzentrationslager,
can refer to both concentration and death camps. Brandt, it should be stressed, was a political detainee in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, which likely affected his experiences there. His remarks, by extension, should in no way be taken as a universal description of the camps; for countless inmates, they were, of course, entirely inhumane and unremittingly miserable. Similar remarks of Brandt are excerpted in Rote Hilfe, ed.,
Bericht,
11.

346

Notes to Pages 219–24

64. Rote Hilfe, ed.,
Bericht,
53.

65. Ibid., 58.

66.
Starbuck Holger Meins,
114–17.

67.
Starbuck Holger Meins,
largely composed of personal remembrances, abounds with such descriptions.

68. Ibid., 6–7.

69. Rote Hilfe, ed.,
Bericht,
7; Schiller,
“Es war ein harter Kampf,”
152–54.

Countless flyers repeated the allegation. On his demise, see
Starbuck Holger
Meins,
142–61.

70. “Hungerstreik, Gewalt und Sozialismus,”
Tagespiegel,
November 17, 1974, 17.

71.
ERKLÄRUNG anläßlich des Todes von Holger Meins
(flyer, ca. November 15, 1974).

72.
Starbuck Holger Meins,
170.

73. Komitees gegen Folter an politischen Gefangenen in der BRD, “Der Mord an dem Revolutionär Holger Meins kann den Befreiungskampf gegen den Im-perialismus nicht aufhalten” (November 18, 1974).