Germany: Frankfurt Sit-In Demonstration at the 3rd Anniversary of the Persecution of Falun Gong (Photos)
Monday, July 29, 2002
Frankfurt's historic city square, the "Roemerberg," (Roman Mount) features a memorial plaque set into its grounds. This tablet was installed to commemorate the horrors of the Nazi era and cites a quote from the German poet Heinrich Heine, who said, "...in those places where books are burned, people will eventually be burned, also."
The site immediately next to this memorial plaque was the location for the Frankfurt Falun Gong group's sit-in demonstration on July 27, 2002. It was held in remembrance of the 438 or more Falun Gong practitioners in China who have been killed since the beginning of the persecution in 1999.
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| Practitioners sitting on Roemerberg | Standing behind photos of killed practitioners in China |
We correlated the quote from poet Heinrich Heine with the three-year persecution in China with appropriate texts and pictures. One of those shows a photograph from 1999, depicting a mountain of burning Falun Gong books; the other one shows the photograph of Dai Zhizhen and her two-year-old daughter who live in Australia. Mrs. Dai is seen with the urn of her husband's ashes. Her husband was tortured to death and had been immediately cremated.
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| Practitioners standing on Roemerberg, holding banners | Sitting in the lotus position behind photographs of Chinese practitioners |
Foreign and German visitors to Roemerberg stood in disbelief before the photographs of these killed practitioners and were also shocked by the true stories they read on our display boards. The recurring question was "Why this persecution?" Each time a practitioner explained the reasons, it not only revealed the absurdity of the persecution to them, but also once again made us aware of it.
Many people signed the petition for Xiong Wei that the Internationale Gesellschaft fuer Menschenrechte (International Association for Human Rights) had displayed. Many people expressed their support for our actions and gave us their respect and encouragement. Chinese tourists again and again stopped in front of us and asked incredulously "Falun Dafa?"
The Roemerberg is Frankfurt's "living room," a showpiece and Frankfurt's No. 1 tourist attraction (dating to the year 1100). Many people were out that day, enjoying the good weather and sunshine. Practitioners demonstrated the exercises for the crowd.
Quite a few practitioners from the surrounding areas came to participate, making it possible to distribute newspapers and flyers and still have one-on-one conversations with many people.
(From:á http://de.yuanming.info/de/articles/4133.html)
(Original text in German)