Germany: “This is so barbaric—it’s like in Hitler’s time! It’s really horrifying.”

"Organs harvested, Falun Gong practitioners murdered. This is now happening in China!” a Falun Gong practitioner said loudly to a passer-by in front of him. What usually happens next is a face full of surprise as the person stops to find out more.

On March the 18th 2006, in the famous German city of Frankfurt near the River Main, Falun Gong practitioners appealed to the German public on the Romerberg to help rescue their fellow practitioners in China. They performed the five sets of Falun Gong exercises, gave out flyers and collected petition signatures. They were exposing the atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist regime at Sujiatun Concentration Camp in China’s Shenyang city where Falun Gong practitioners are illegally detained, their organs harvested and their bodies cremated in secret.

People came to sign the petition and call for an end to the persecution against Falun Gong

Displayed on the long table were photos of torture methods, flyers, Falun Gong bookmarks and a petition. Next to the table was a large banner in both Chinese and German: “Strongly Condemn the CCP’s Sujiatun Concentration Camp where Falun Gong Practitioners’ Organs are removed for sale and bodies cremated”. There were also photos of practitioners being tortured with the tiger bench, electric batons and other cruel methods. Behind the displays, practitioners from neighbouring cities performed the exercises peacefully under the warm sun and in the gentle spring breeze. They quietly showed the world the truth of Falun Gong.

While practitioners were still setting up, a Malaysian Chinese came along and looked at some of the displays. A German practitioner who spoke Chinese went up to him, introduced himself and gave him a flyer. To the practitioner’s surprise, the man said: “Please give me an English flyer.” An English-speaking practitioner then stepped forward and passed him an English flyer and explained to him what happened at the Sujiatun Concentration Camp. In less than a minute, this man had decided to sign our petition. He wrote his name in Chinese – the only Chinese characters he knew how to write – and became the first person to sign the petition that day.

“Organs removed, Falun Gong practitioners murdered this is now happening in China!” a Falun Gong practitioner said loudly to a passing-by German man. The surprised young man appeared shocked and stopped in his track. After a quick glance at the flyer, he signed his name on the petition. The practitioner asked him: “What are your thoughts?” He said: “Not much. This kind of thing shouldn’t happen!” The practitioner quietly watched him writing his address and said: “The suppression of freedom of belief and the killing of lives is showing contempt to the dignity and right to life.” The young man replied: “Yes, its genocide.” “Good luck!” said the smiling young man before he left.

People read the display boards and talked with practitioners to find out more about what is happening in the Sujiatun concentration camp

Another practitioner said to a middle-aged German lady: “The information on Sujiatun was revealed by a former Chinese journalist on March the 8th. Yesterday, a nurse who used to work at a hospital near Sujiatun also provided information to The Epoch Times and said that one of her relatives used to be a surgeon who removed organs from Falun Gong practitioners while they were still alive. Since 2001, more than 4,000 practitioners have been murdered and heir organs were sold for a lot of money. The remains of those murdered practitioners were cremated in an on-site incinerator. There are now still around 2,000 practitioners remaining.”

The practitioner then pointed at a photo and said: “Have a look! This photo was taken in the very same city - Shenyang (where the Sujiatun Concentration Camp is located) - before the persecution began in 1999. With thousands of Falun Gong practitioners doing the exercises together in the morning, wasn’t that a spectacle to look at? If they hadn’t benefited from the practice, they wouldn’t have done that.” The lady was rather direct: “That doesn’t mean anything. In my view, many people just follow others blindly.”

“That may be true in a peaceful environment. However, when people are faced with a brutal and violent environment,” said the practitioner, pointing at the photo of a practitioner Wang Bin who was persecuted to death and had a long surgical scar on the chest of his dead body, “if they still persist in practising their beliefs….then they really have to think things over because they need to be responsible for their own lives. Those people wouldn’t follow others blindly.” The German lady listened and gave the matter some thought. In the end, she said: “That’s right. I’ve signed your petition. I hope it will work for you.”

“Of course it will work! Pressure from the public and international community is what the CCP fears most,” said the practitioner “If they are faced with condemnations from all over the world everyday, they will become fearful and restrained in their brutal actions. That way, the kind people can be protected!”

A lean, clever-looking middle-aged man read through the flyer carefully and after listening to a practitioner’s explanation, he said: “I believe in what you said and I agree with you, but I can’t sign the petition. I am a flight attendant and often go in and out of China. There was an occasion when I was detained in the airport and every time I was in China, I always felt like I was being watched closely. The Chinese people have very little freedom there. I can’t sign the petition.” As he explained, he seemed apologetic and tried to avoid eye-contact with the practitioner.

The practitioner said: “Please think about it. Isn’t your personal experience a testimony of the violation of human rights by the CCP? You could feel the tight control exerted by CCP even as a non-Chinese and living in the West. Please think about the poor Chinese people who live in the environment where everything, including the media, army, policemen and wealth, is tightly controlled by the CCP!”

“Almost 9 million Chinese have publicly renounced the CCP. If one day, the CCP collapsed and the Chinese people regained their freedom again, would you be able to look at them in the eyes and tell them that in order to protect yourself, you didn’t even sign a petition when the persecution was at its worst, and that you stood side by side with the CCP?”

The man lowered his head and was deep in thought for half a minute. He suddenly raised his head and walked straight up to the petition table. Another lady was there, and she turned around and asked her husband: “Have you signed?”

The husband was a little emotional, his chest moving up and down with anger, “Our government should have done more! All they think about is trade and money!” he said indignantly, trying to suppress his rage. A practitioner replied: “How could a government that disregards people’s rights to belief and life trade fairly? A lot of the made-in-China cheap commercial goods were produced in labour camps and prisons through forced labour and were imported to the West en masse. This has caused high unemployment rates in the West and those Western governments have to pay out a lot of social benefits. This has caused major headaches for those politicians at election times.” Both agreed that the CCP’s abuse of human rights has affected the economy of the world.

“May I sign?” asked a bashful teenage girl. Another very tall young man asked eagerly: “Where can I sign the petition?” and looked around searching. A practitioner then lifted up the petition for him to see. An old, frail lady said: “My eye sight is very poor so I can’t write… but I’ll pray for you, for the Chinese people!” After signing the petition, a lady in her fifties stood in front of the display for a long time, her face full of pain and sympathy, and she muttered: “This is so barbaric; it’s like in Hitler’s time! It’s really horrifying” The address column on the petition paper showed that people who signed had come from all over the world, including Spain, Italy, Poland, Russia, Thailand and Malaysia and so on.