[51] The report catalogues evidence that, the U.S. government concluded, proved that Waldheim had taken part in, among other actions: the transfer of civilian prisoners to the SS for exploitation as slave labor; the mass deportation of civiliansincluding Jews from Greek islands and the town of Banja Luka, Yugoslaviato concentration and death camps; the utilization of antisemitic propaganda; the mistreatment and execution of Allied prisoners; and reprisal executions of hostages and other civilians. In the immediate aftermath of the fighting, an Allied war crimes commission recommended that he be tried as a war criminal. Omissions? International uproar surged, especially as the World Jewish Congress and American and European media continued to air new revelations about Waldheims past. He was 88. Waldheim during a press conference at the, Waldheim's voice recording on the Voyager Golden Record, Report of the International Historical Commission of 8 February 1988, section on "Membership in National Socialist Organizations", as cited, e.g., in, Israeli-Ugandan Relations in the Time of Idi Amin by. info); St. Andr-Wrdern, Baixa ustria, 21 de dezembro de 1918 - Viena, 14 de junho de 2007 [ 1]) foi um diplomata e poltico austraco, Secretrio-geral da ONU de 1972 a 1981 e Presidente da Repblica da ustria de 1986 a 1992. The veto duel between China and the United States lasted a record 16 rounds. It was a period when the world body was increasingly dominated by third world rhetoric and paralyzed by disagreements between the superpowers. In his 1985 memoir, "In the Eye of the Storm," Kurt Waldheim described Austria in the aftermath of World War I as "the defeated, ruined, truncated remnant of the former Austro-Hungarian Habsburg Empire.". A year after the first allegations surfaced, the U.S. Justice Department took the highly unusual step of placing the sitting Austrian presidents name on a watch list, which prohibited him from entering the United States. Kurt Waldheim Jr. Kurt Waldheim, the former UN secretary general and president of Austria whose hidden complicity in Nazi war crimes was exposed late in his career, died Thursday in Vienna, Austrian media reported. The commission did not say Waldheim personally participated in the bloodshed, and he seized on that to claim that he had essentially been exonerated. Kurt Waldheim, who has died aged 88 of heart failure, served two terms as secretary-general of the United Nations (1972-82) before it was revealed that he had lied about . He was secretary-general of the United Nations (1972-81) and . D uring Kurt Waldheim's Austrian presidential campaign in the spring of 1986, that nation's collective consciousness experienced a painful return of the repressed, a psychological agony . In my view he was the kind of person and there are many of his type in Austria who goes along to get along. [20] According to Finnish diplomat Risto Hyvrinen, Waldheim's former Nazi connections were already known to the Finnish officials who supported Max Jakobson for Secretary-General in the election. He had been stationed in Yugoslavia when atrocities were committed. "Kurt Waldheim did not, in fact, order, incite or personally commit what is commonly called a war crime," Herzstein wrote. Then Ryan or someone from OSI would leak to The New York Times that they had nabbed another Nazi and deported him to Austria. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, What time is it on the moon? Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria from 1986 to 1992. Wikipedia je trna znamka neprofitne organizacije Wikimedia Foundation Inc.; Pravilnik o zasebnosti Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981 and president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. [17] According to Eli Rosenbaum, in 1944, Waldheim reviewed and approved a packet of antisemitic propaganda leaflets to be dropped behind Soviet lines, one of which ended: "Enough of the Jewish war, kill the Jews, come over. WALDHEIM AFFAIR. During his tenure, he won praise for his handling of negotiations to establish a U.N. peacekeeping mission after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and during an unsuccessful attempt to mediate the U.S. hostage crisis in Tehran in 1980, he braved an angry mob of Iranians waving wooden legs and arm stumps (supposed victims of torture under the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi). [57] On 23 June, his funeral was held at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, and he was buried at the Presidential Vault in the Zentralfriedhof ("central cemetery"). Besedilo se sme prosto uporabljati v skladu z dovoljenjem Creative Commons Priznanje avtorstva-Deljenje pod enakimi pogoji 3.0; uveljavljajo se lahko dodatni pogoji.Za podrobnosti glej Pogoje uporabe. Love Fred and the racier shit but I never found any of the various Kurt Waldheim Jr bits funny. Secretary-general of the United Nations (1972-81). Active in the Christian Social Party, he was well regarded as a devoutly Catholic family man. In his 1985 autobiography, he claimed that he was discharged from further service at the front and, for the remainder of the war, finished his law degree at the University of Vienna, in addition to marrying in 1944. He was 88. His father, Walter, the son of an impoverished blacksmith, became the local school superintendent and . He served as First Secretary of the Legation in Paris from 1948, and in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Vienna from 1951 to 1956. It took hundreds of thousands of ordinary men - well-meaning but ambitious men like Kurt Waldheim - to make the Third Reich possible. That was true. Like many ambitious people, he loved publicity. Waldheim had served a painful term as Austrian President, marked from beginning . The Germans were unhappy with our decision. Waldheim had unsuccessfully sought election as President of Austria in 1971, but his second attempt on 8 June 1986 proved successful. He went on to win the presidency in 1986, and less than a year later, the U.S. government formally barred him from entering the country, citing evidence it said showed that he had assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of Allied prisoners, Yugoslav partisans, Jews and other civilians. 463. He argued that the Austrian Prime Minister, a Social Democrat, was about to visit the U.S. and it would be a great embarrassment to him if we banned Waldheim. Share. Waldheim je bil generalni sekretar OZN (1972-1981) in predsednik Avstrije (1986-1992). I was listening to an Audiobook recently, specifically the book KL by Nikolaus Wachsmann. Earlier this week, it was examined by the Israeli and Austrian ambassadors. William Bodde Jr, interviewed in October 1998, reflects on his time as a staff aide in Vienna during this controversy. At Waldheim's own request, no foreign heads of states or governments were invited to attend his funeral except Hans-Adam II, the Prince of Liechtenstein. The "Waldheim Affair" is the term conventionally applied to the controversy surrounding the disclosure of the previously unknown past of Kurt Waldheim, former secretary general of the United Nations, which arose during his campaign for the Austrian presidency in 1986.The affair not only focused international attention on Waldheim personally, but also raised broader questions . The Waldheim affair triggered a fundamental debate in Austria about the countrys past during World War II. Born Dec. 21, 1918, in Sankt Andr-Wrdern, Lower Austria. Preview, Elvis 8/15/86 Susan Berkley, Kurt Waldheim Jr. 8/18/86 Philadelphia broadcast debut 8/21/86 Post Office massacre 8/22/86 Stern song debut, Boomerang 8/25/86 Morning Zoo 9/11/86 Siskel and Ebert While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Entire villages were wiped out by Lohrs men. After he was elected President, groups in the U.S. began a campaign to put him on the list of people who were banned from entering the U.S. Austrian political figure and diplomat. . The former Secretary General of the United Nations and Ambassador to France and Canada was initially seen as an obvious choice for the position, which is primarily a ceremonial role. He was 88. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992. Those who relate this film only to current problems . The rest of the delegation waited a day to catch a direct flight to Washington. Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981 and president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. Eventually, though, he was forced to acknowledge that he continued in the military as an intelligence officer, stationed from 1942 to 1945 in Greece and Yugoslavia -- sites of some of the most horrendous massacres of the war. He did lie about his military service. An international commission of historians has found "no proof" that Kurt Waldheim committed war crimes, according to the 200-page report it submitted to Chancellor Franz Vranitzky here Monday . The aristocratic poseur, Waldheim, was the grandson of a Czech blacksmith . Because of his known anti-Nazi sympathies, Walter Waldheim was twice arrested by the Gestapo and lost his job. The German occupation in the Balkans was particularly brutal. [47] The committee also noted that "he only had very minor possibilities to act against the injustices happening". Consequently, he chose not to run for a second term in 1992. After recovering, he returned to active duty in the spring of 1942 and was seconded to the service of Gen. Alexander Lohr, a fellow Austrian who led a string of brutal campaigns against Yugoslav partisans and dispatched some 40,000 Greek Jews to Auschwitz. Some Germans had stayed in Austria partly because they thought that the Occupation, which was not called Occupation, would be less rigorous and less de-Nazifying than it was in Germany. Daniel Radcliffe as Howard Stern in photos from the set of "Private Parts" remake. Later he was Waldheims campaign manager, and he finally had to resign because he said in an interview that unless they found that Waldheim had personally strangled somebody, they did not have a case. When they emigrated to the United States they hid their Nazi past. However, first and foremost, it is a film about the process of the affair. Then in November 1938, he enrolled in the SA, the paramilitary Nazi organization of storm troopers. Waldheim applied for membership in the National Socialist German Students' League (NSDStB), a division of the Nazi Party. Theres no doubt about that. "[18], In 1945, Waldheim surrendered to British forces in Carinthia, at which point he said he had fled his command post within Army Group E, where he was serving with General Alexander Lhr.[19]. But for many critics, Waldheim embodied their view of the U.N. as a toothless appeaser or a weak tool of the dominant superpowers. While he was running for the latter office in the 1986 election, the revelation of his service in Greece and Yugoslavia as an . Fischer also praised Waldheim for his efforts to solve international crises and for his contributions to world peace. But, in fact, at the age of 19 he joined the National Socialist German Students League - a Nazi youth organization - just a month after the Anschluss. Waldheim's tenure as Austria's president was tainted by revelations that he had concealed his wartime record. He was reelected in 1976 despite some opposition from less-developed countries, but a third term was vetoed by the Chinese government in 1981. He led Austrias first delegation to the UN (1955) and subsequently represented the country in Canada (195660), first as minister plenipotentiary and then as ambassador. share. [36][37][38] The 23 March 1986 public disclosure by the World Jewish Congress that the organization had unearthed the fact that the United Nations War Crimes Commission concluded after the war that Waldheim was implicated in Nazi mass murder and should be arrested arguably transformed the Waldheim affair into the most sensational of all post-war Nazi scandals. The sources, who spoke on . His father, Walter, the son of an impoverished blacksmith, became the local school superintendent and . UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ A secret U.N. War Crimes Commission file on Kurt Waldheim is based on Yugoslav accusations that the former U.N. secretary-general was involved in Nazi reprisals against civilians, sources said Friday. Waldheim's father, a Czech by ethnic origin, changed his name from Waclawik to Waldheim. But sure, its this kind of ex post facto thing that we got into. "Our family was under constant surveillance," Waldheim wrote. Kurt Waldheim, avstrijski astnik, pravnik, diplomat in politik, * 21. december 1918, Sankt Andr-Wrdern, Spodnja Avstrija, 14. junij 2007, Dunaj. Shultz said, Get out! This argument may have merit but it did not change the U.S. position. Kurt Waldheim, a widely esteemed former secretary general of the United Nations, was running for president of Austria in March 1986 when it came to light that he had participated in Nazi . It was to damage his reputation for . He died of heart failure, the state broadcaster ORF reported. Still, the Waldheim affair took up a lot of our time. After losing the presidential election, Waldheim ran for Secretary-General of the United Nations in the 1971 selection. A biographical drama film about Kurt Josef Waldheim, former UN Secretary General and the controversy of his participation and role in the Nazi regime during WW II . Other pieces of evidence included logs and intelligence reports, purportedly bearing his signature, describing mass deportations of Greek Jews to death camps. Reply . Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian-born lawyer, soldier, politician, and envoy who served as the 4 th Secretary-General of the UN and the 9 th President of Austria. Obituary: Kurt Waldheim. Updates? This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-Waldheim, British Broadcasting Corporation - Kurt Waldheim, United Nations - Biography of Kurt Waldheim, Kurt Waldheim - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). On the Policy Planning Staff several of the other members and I, who was supposed to know something about Austria, we all had access to all the intelligence that anybody else did. They would have the person renounce his or her U.S. citizenship. As secretary general, Waldheim was often criticized - by governments in the West, East and the third world - as ineffectual and overly cautious in his attempts to find solutions to the many conflicts erupting around the globe. No, at least not during the Cold War when important strategic interests were at stake. In 1994, Pope John Paul II awarded Waldheim a knighthood in the Order of Pius IX and his wife a papal honor. It was intended to prompt us to look into the causes, course and consequences of the Waldheim affair. I didnt deal with him because he was much above my level. Theres an office in the Justice Department, the Office of Special Investigations, which is dedicated to uncovering former Nazis. In 1986, four years after his tenure as the UN Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim made a bid to lead his native Austria. [46] The International Committee in February 1988 concluded that Waldheim had been "in close proximity to some Nazi atrocities, knew they were going on and made no attempt to stop them". [40] Former Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky, of Jewish origin, denounced the actions of the World Jewish Congress as an "extraordinary infamy",[40] adding that Austrians would not "allow the Jews abroad to tell us who should be our President". While he was running for the latter office in the 1986 election, the revelation of his service in Greece and Yugoslavia as an intelligence officer in Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht . Israeli ambassador Yehuda Zvi Blum denied the charges, saying, "We don't believe Waldheim ever supported the Nazis and we never said he did. The World Jewish Congress and an Austrian investigative magazine produced documents detailing his membership in Nazi organizations and his military service in the Balkans. Among the deeds in which he was implicated, U.S. officials said, were the transport of civilians to Nazi slave labor camps; the deportation of Jews from the Greek islands and from Banja Luka, in Serbian Bosnia, to death camps; reprisal executions of hostages; and the approval and dissemination of propaganda calling for the elimination of the Jews. The sad thing was that one of the OSI lawyers on the team was anxious to get home to his family. Waldheim lied about his wartime service in the Balkans, maintaining that his military career ended in 1942 after he was wounded in a battle on the Russian front. Han var Frenta nationernas generalsekreterare 1972-1981 och sterrikes frbundspresident 1986-1992. Waldheim weathered protests abroad, calls for his resignation at home and even the cold shoulder of some members of his own political party. The United States became the third country granted access to the file. We have many differences with him, but that isn't one of them. [34], Waldheim had previously claimed to have received a medical discharge after being wounded in winter 1942. Waldheim later stated that "he did not know about the murder of civilians there". 1. Last week, former UN Secretary-General and Austrian President Kurt Waldheim died at the age of 88. National Socialist German Students' League, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Austria's refusal to address its national role in the Holocaust, Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI), "Former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim dies at 88 Haaretz Israel News", "Kurt Waldheim: Austrian head of the UN who as president of his country was later tainted by charges of complicity in Nazi atrocities", "Wir sterreicher whlen, wen wir wollen", "Suomen ulkoministerin johto tiesi Waldheimin natsimenneisyyden jo 1971", Israeli Ugandan Relations in the Time of Idi Amin, "July 4, Day of Operation Entebbe, Israel Upgrades Uganda Airport", "It's Election Year at U.N., With Waldheim Post Open", "Waldheim is Backed by Security Council for Five Years More", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY_mJLwBgrc&t=45s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxXE_4nyxUg, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R97kxi1InWc&t=13s, Stealing Beauty: Dispute Rages Over Austria's Looted Art, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency (RG 263), Bericht der internationalen Historikerkommission, Schlussbetrachtung, "WALDHEIM BARRED FROM ENTERING U.S. OVER ROLE IN WAR", https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-hrsp/legacy/2011/02/04/04-09-87waldheim-rpt.pdf, "Waldheim, ex-UN leader and Nazi, buried in Austria", "Kurt Waldheim dies at 88; ex-UN chief hid Nazi past", "Former Austrian president whose term was marred by wartime service buried", Trauerfeier fr Altbundesprsident Dr. Kurt Waldheim im Wiener Stephansdom, 23.06.2007, Ban Ki-moon voices sadness at death of former Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Austria and Nazism: Owning Up to the Past (A BBC Report), The Waldheim Report: International Commission of Historians, Video of Kurt Waldheim sworn in as UN Secretary-General, GREEK JEWS CHALLENGING WALDHEIM by HENRY KAMM, Ambassador of Austria to the United Nations, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kurt_Waldheim&oldid=1141564433, Permanent Representatives of Austria to the United Nations, Secretaries-General of the United Nations, Recipients of the Iron Cross (1939), 2nd class, Austrian military personnel of World War II, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Interpreter with the liaison staff attached to the Italian. Kurt Waldheim, the erudite diplomat who served as secretary-general of the United Nations and Austria's president but left the world stage a pariah after his Nazi past was . Then it is easy to make references to the present. [5], Although his father wanted him to study medicine, Waldheim had an aversion to the sight of blood, and had already decided to enter the foreign service. Anyone can read what you share. [44], In view of the ongoing international controversy, the Austrian government decided to appoint an international committee of historians to examine Waldheim's life between 1938 and 1945. Under U.S. law the Justice Department makes the decision. Klestils friendships didnt do him much good. From his youth, Waldheim was distinguished by his unusual height of 1.92m (6ft 4in). Today is Tuesday, March 10, the 70th day of 2020. The book also alleged that the Soviet Union was aware of Waldheim's alleged involvement in Nazi crimes and that, after vetoing other candidates in order to get Waldheim installed as U.N. Secretary General in 1972, used that information to extract concessions at the United Nations that facilitated KGB espionage in the United States, and that the CIA's failure to anticipate this possibility was a major failure for the intelligence agency. Kurt Josef Waldheim (German pronunciation: [kt valdham]; 21 December 1918 - 14 June 2007) was an Austrian diplomat and politician.
