I just finished a film titled ,“Do It” for my German class. The film is a documentary about a fledgling Swiss terrorist group in the 1970’s. The group started as a clique of idealistic students.
After the Kent State shootings, the Swiss students decided that peaceful resistance was an unrealistic form of protest. The group adopted violence (ie, terrorism) to achieve their political goals.
They broke into a Swiss military storage building and stole weapons. They did some small-time terrorism around Zurich while attempting to contact terrorist organizations abroad.
After a few years, the students found themselves intermingled with the IRA, Baader-Meinhof, Iranian and Palestinian terrorist groups.
Blowing up empty buildings was one thing. Killing the Shah of Iran, and blowing up a Café in London was another.
Most of the group was caught and imprisoned. After their Swiss-sentences the members were dogged by Interpol warrants from Italy for arms shipments. The focus of the documentary, Daniele von Arb, was imprisoned in Switzerland, Italy, and India.
In the Swiss jail Von Arb says that he lost his belief in god. He supposedly felt a rush of clarity and rationality. Then Von Arb developed a fascination with India and mysticism. He went to India, but was falsely imprisoned for two months on an old Interpol warrant.
Tortures took place a room next door to the crowded cell that Von Arb was in. He described the screams. Before taking a prisoner to torture, guards would pray to a effigy outside of the main cell. The prisoners were never mad at the guards for torturing them. They attributed the torture to their ,iKarma.
Von Arb said that this was an example of how ridiculously far religion can be taken.
…but what confused me was that he continued his fascination with India and mysticism, and is now a psychic /fortune-teller.
The movie ends with Von Arb walking on hot coals.
Filed under: foreign , communists, do it, german class, movies, radicals, Swiss terrorism, terrorism
