Brian Terrell sentenced to 15 days in a German prison
Catholic Worker
I just got word from the court in Koblenz, Germany, that I have been ordered to present myself to the prison at Wittlich on February 26 to serve a 15-day sentence for a “crime” committed more than 5 years ago in July, 2019.
Along with fellow Catholic Workers Susan Van der Hijden of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Susan Crane of Redwood City, California, I cut a hole in a fence to gain access to the German military air base at Büchel, where it is an open secret that a US Air Force squadron maintains 20 B61 nuclear bombs in a NATO sharing agreement.
At that time, I reported on the event:
“We had just cut through the first of two security fences around the, when a roving perimeter patrol interrupted our work. Caught between the two fences, there was a brief stand off as we unfurled a banner that read ‘NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE ILLEGAL- Büchel air base is a crime scene.’ The German military police who apprehended us ordered us to put the sign away, even though there was no one else besides us and them to see it, an order that they could not enforce as we walked along between the two fences way from them. Finally, the fittest of them scaled the inner fence, taking care of the barbed wire at the top. Relieved of our banner, we were escorted back to the hole we had made and pushed out through it where together we awaited the civilian police for the next stage of the process.
“’Why do you come here to break our country’s laws?’ demanded one soldier who seemed to be in charge of the detail but who might have simply had the best command of the English language. I pointed in the direction of the bunkers. ‘My country is breaking your county’s laws by keeping nuclear weapons here,’ I replied, and told him it is that larger crime that we came to address.
“’You cut a hole in our fence!’ he said in an accusatory tone. ‘Never mind the fence,’ I replied, ‘a hole in a fence is a small thing.’ I told him what he already knew, that as the only place in Germany where nuclear weapons are stored and ready to be used, Büchel is a target for the nuclear weapons of other nations. Everything around us could be incinerated in a moment. I suggested that he revise his priorities and stop obsessing about little crimes like trespass and minor damage to a fence and consider more serious issues such as crimes against humanity and the potential destruction of the planet.”
My accomplices Susan Van der Hijden was recently released after serving her time for this and other charges and Susan Crane will be in jail until January 19. Due to a recent change in German law, my original 30-day sentence was cut in half.
The world is a far more dangerous place today than it was 5 years ago. It seems fitting for me to spend two weeks out of the season of Lent and the season of Ramadan, 2025, in a German prison.
“We still hold that nonviolent resistance is the only sane solution, and that we have to continue to make our voice heard until we are finally silenced--and even then, in jail or concentration camp, to express ourselves.” Dorothy Day
