Germany: Candlelight Vigil During the “Long Night at the Museums” in Berlin

For a few years, Berlin has been staging a special attraction, a cultural event that is quite unusual. It is called “Long Night at the Museums,” which took place for the 20th time on August 26th, 2006. This event drew quite a lot of people and not only citizens of Berlin, but also tourists. Over a hundred cultural establishments took part in this event. From 5pm to 2am, everyone can soak up as much culture as they can.

During the event, many people stroll along the streets. Keeping this in mind, Berlin practitioners decided to use this opportunity and also take to the streets, so that they could tell the people about the persecution in China.

Informing the people about the organ harvesting

Therefore, a permit request for an information booth and a candlelight vigil at an advantageous location was filed. This place was in the heart of the “Long Night,” in the middle of the Berlin Dom and close to the Old National Gallery and the Old Museum. This also was the place where many of the normally scheduled public transit buses and the special buses for the “Long Night at the Museums” stopped. It was the traffic hub for buses. Also, when the people looked through the windows of the full buses, they could see the Falun Gong banners and could read about the persecution.

Even before we had finished putting up the information booth, people already began to look at the presentation boards. Although the weather was not perfect, many people passed by our booth. All passersby took a flyer. Many looked at the displays and the flyers, while some wanted to discuss the information or started a discussion with practitioners. Despite the rain, many people signed the petition, asking the German Federal Government to be instrumental in bringing about the end of the organ harvesting in China.

It caught our eyes that on that particular evening many young people showed interested in learning more about this persecution. They wanted to know why these people were persecuted. One mother encouraged her child to look at the display boards and answered patiently the child’s questions. Because of the many discussions we were able to distribute quite a number of the pamphlets “The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.”

As soon as it turned dark around 8:30 pm, we lit the candles for our candlelight vigil. Although it rained on and off, and the wind blew out some of the candles, the people were very impressed with this display and came to a standstill. Even, later on, when it got darker, and the people had a difficult time seeing the boards, they still stopped and looked. They just came closer to the information boards. They could then see them and they were not a bit bothered by the darkness.

The candle light vigil

There was one person that evening who did not believe us. He said that all was just bogus and Falun Gong is just holding a big show. After I asked him over and over again during our conversation about the origin of his knowledge, he admitted that he was a Sinologist and that he knew everything about China.

He said that it is true that China violates human rights and that he does not believe that everything is alright with what the Chinese regime does, but he insisted that they do not persecute Falun Gong. He did not argue about it, but kept stubbornly to his opinion that Falun Gong practitioners were not persecuted in China. He refused to read the “Nine Commentaries,” as he already knew everything about this party. I felt sorry for this man. I told him that there would be a day when he will hear the full truth and wished him a good evening. I sent righteous thoughts after him in the hope that he will no longer be taken in by the Chinese Communist Party propaganda.

All in all, the vigil was very successful. Many people could hear again about the inhuman persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, and again more truth became known.

Orignally published in German at: http://de.clearharmony.net/articles/200608/33454.html