Germany: Commemorating Eight Years of Persecution Against Falun Gong

On Saturday July 21st 2007, North German practitioners organised an information day in downtown Hamburg to commemorate eight years of persecution against Falun Gong. Practitioners set up a booth under a brilliant blue sky and sunshine. At the same time, the first interested people stopped by to see the photos exposing the torture used against practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They were horror stricken and speechless.

Larger banners in German and Chinese and a re-enactment of organ harvesting had a big effect on people. It took them quite a while to get a few words past their lips: “Oh, how terrible.” Without a second thought, they signed the petition to protest against the CCP’s harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. The petitions will be presented to the German Federal Government to encourage it to speak out against the inhuman treatment of the Chinese populace.

Demonstrating organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners

Many people stopped by to find out more. Among them were many Chinese tourists. Young and old enjoyed watching demonstrations of the five sets of Falun Gong exercises and many passersby stood at the booth watching for quite some time.

The exercises and the soft exercise music made a good impression on people. “What are you doing?” was a frequently asked question. Meditation is not very well known in the West and looks strange to the people, while it is ingrained in traditional Chinese culture and is in no way mysterious. The peace emanating from the practitioners fascinated the passersby and they were genially touched by it. In a world where stress and noise is a constant, our booth comes across like an oasis in the middle of the everyday hustle and bustle.

Demonstrating the fifth exercise

Practitioners distributed leaflets all day to all passersby and took a lot of effort to expose the persecution to those who wanted to listen. They also told people of the physical benefits they have received from practising Falun Gong. The majority of people did not pass by without taking leaflets and signing the petition.