(Clearwisdom.net) Tanya from Jerusalem looked serious and determined as she held a banner in front of the European Council in Strasbourg, France, calling on people to support the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China.
"I know exactly how the friends and relatives of the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners are feeling," explained Tanya, who was participating in the recent Falun Gong demonstrations to support the resolution in the European Council condemning the crimes of communist regimes.
Tanya joined a group of Falun Gong practitioners who arrived from all over Europe to raise awareness about the crimes of the Chinese communist regime against Falun Gong in China.
"My grandparents perished in the Holocaust because they were persecuted for being Jews," she said. "I grew up in Russia and spent the first forty years of my life there. I was a teacher and had to teach Communist theory, which was required of everyone."
"At the time, I didn't understand how cruel and inhumane Communism really is and I caused many children to join the Communist youth league. Only forty years later, when I immigrated to Israel and read the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party in The Epoch Times, did I understand how cruel Communism really is. This is why I came all the way to France. They are a danger to all countries and to humankind."
Tanya has been practicing Falun Gong for six years. In Israel, she was a physics teacher until she was diagnosed with cancer. As her cancer reached the terminal stages and her doctor had given up all hope for her, one of the nurses gave her the book Zhuan Falun.
"The nurse helped me to understand the book and the teachings. I read all of the writings of Teacher Li (the founder of Falun Gong) one after another. I couldn't stop reading."
Within one week, Tanya started to feel better. In the beginning, she had trouble doing the exercises since she had just had surgery, but she persisted in practicing. Tanya said proudly that on May 13 2003, World Falun Dafa Day, she was able to go to the practice site in Jerusalem's City Park for the first time.
Tanya enthusiastically said: "The Falun Gong group in Israel is really wonderful. They stick together like a single body. There are many practitioners and we take active measures against the persecution of our fellow practitioners in China."
"Currently, we stage exhibits in many cities to promote Truth-Compassion-Forbearance and participate in Falun Gong parades, distributing many flyers to promote the exhibit. This has proven to be very effective."
However, Tanya traveled to Strasbourg alone. It is her personal desire to speak up against communism and the Chinese communist regime's persecution against Falun Gong at this event.
"The persecution affects not only the Falun Gong practitioners in China. Their relatives and friends also suffer enormously and many people are affected. I know very well how it feels when innocent people in your environment are being imprisoned just because the authorities don't like them. In my environment back in Russia, it happened quite often.
"The people in China suffer so much. The communist regime sends them to labor camps and tortures and kills them just because of their convictions. Back in Russia, twenty million people died under communism. In China, eighty million have lost their lives already to allow the Party to survive. I am here because I think that it just has to stop."
The Falun Gong activities in front of the European Council building were very successful. Many of the delegates, visitors and journalists coming from the building talked with Falun Gong practitioners and showed their support for practitioners being persecuted by the communist regime in China.
Many of them had already signed the petition supporting the resolution and encouraged the practitioners to continue the activities. Others also mentioned that they had conducted extensive talks with representatives of Falun Gong practitioners in the European Parliament and that they had received the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.
Some had read the Nine Commentaries and some were still reading them. One of the delegates said: "This is really explosive material." 
Tanya joined the demonstration in support of the Council of Europe resolution 
Falun Gong practitioners exposed the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by re-enacting some of the forms of torture that the CCP use against practitioners in Chinese forced labour camps 
Holding banners and demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises