Four years after returning from New York to Austria, Waldheim was hot on the campaign trail, all but certain of an . 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. [26], Waldheim ran for a second term in the 1976 UN Secretary-General selection. [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. 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. Waldheim's functions within the staff of German Army's Group E from 1942 until 1945, as determined by the International Commission of Historians,[11] were: By 1943, Waldheim was serving in the capacity of an aide-de-camp in Army Group E which was headed by General Alexander Lhr, who would be executed as a war criminal in 1947. hide. He is a figurehead and spends a great amount of time visiting other countries. In 1987 the US Justice Department declared Kurt Waldheim a dangerous agent; forever forbidding his re-entry onto US soil. 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 . Their report found no evidence of any personal involvement in those crimes. During 196870 he served as Austrian foreign minister. 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 during World War II raised international controversy. But more than four decades later, his assertions were disputed by witnesses, photographs, medals and commendations given to Waldheim, and by his own signature on documents linked to massacres and deportations. [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. And fellow Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger invited Waldheim to his 1986 wedding to Maria Shriver, a month after the disclosures about Waldheims Nazi past. Sklici in opombe Glej tudi . Shit is just hard to watch, his jokes were never funny. Of course, this made the Austrians very unhappy. Waldheim later stated that "he did not know about the murder of civilians there". Waldheim was a member of the Austrian People's Party, a World War II Veteran and . 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. The aristocratic poseur, Waldheim, was the grandson of a Czech blacksmith . [52], Additional allegations of participation in Nazi crimes, with citations to captured Nazi documents and other records, were leveled in a 1993 book by Eli Rosenbaum, the former U.S. federal prosecutor who had directed the World Jewish Congress investigation that led to the New York Times' initial exposure of Waldheim's hidden Nazi-era past in 1986. - Date based on span of years Waldheim served as Secretary General of the United Nations. Welfia Klosterneuburg, a Roman Catholic student fraternity part of the Austrian Cartellverband. Waldheim may have been able to hide his past for so long because of the web of intrigue between intelligence services in the Cold War era. [29][30], Waldheim was the first Secretary-General to visit North Korea, in 1979. In the years between the discovery of his scandalous past and his death, Waldheim steadfastly portrayed himself as an ordinary, unheroic citizen caught up in a maelstrom, a point Herzstein reflected upon. We wanted the information and we did not want it to fall into the hands of the Soviets. Escola Roncagli; Waldheim; German Col. Hans Herbert Macholtz and General of the 7th SS-Division, General Artur Phelps. But for whatever reason, he and thousands of others eluded prosecution in the chaos of postwar Europe. He came back and he and I went to see the Secretary. Austrian state media said Waldheim, who was hospitalized last month with a fever-causing infection, died of heart failure in Vienna. There was testimony that he had roughed up some of the POWs. May 22, 1943. Both were interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy. Kurt Josef Waldheim was born on December 21 1918 at Tulln, near Vienna. That is why they preferred him. In 1986 Waldheim ran once again as the Peoples Party candidate for president of Austria. Near the end of his tenure as secretary-general, Waldheim and British popular musician Paul McCartney organized a series of concerts for the People of Kampuchea to help Cambodia recover from the damage done by Pol Pot.[32]. Waldheim, Kurt. See 4 March 1986 WABC-TV news report (New York City) on the worldwide exposure that day of Waldheim's Nazi past, at: See WNBC-TV (New York City) 23 March 1986 news report on the World Jewish Congress's revelation of the U.N. War Crimes Commission inclusion of Waldheim on the UNWCC wanted list at: Zuroff, Efraim (April 2002) "Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, 20012002," Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem. Congress had passed the Holtzman Act, named after Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, to legalize the expulsion and prevention of suspected Nazi criminals from the U.S. thirty years after the end of WWII. [58], In his speech at the cathedral, Federal President Heinz Fischer called Waldheim "a great Austrian" who had been wrongfully accused of having committed war crimes. The official . 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. [28], In 1977, Waldheim recorded a greeting for the Voyager Golden Records, a pair of discs containing sounds and images representing the diversity of life and culture on Earth, which were launched into deep space on the Voyager spacecraft. Kurt Waldheim synonyms, Kurt Waldheim pronunciation, Kurt Waldheim translation, English dictionary definition of Kurt Waldheim. 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. Many of them were Yugoslavs or Romanians and all of them were old. William Bodde Jr, interviewed in October 1998, reflects on his time as a staff aide in Vienna during this controversy. [53] In a letter to the editor published in Foreign Affairs magazine two years after Rosenbaum's book was released, former Finnish ambassador to the U.N. Max Jakobson (one of the candidates whom the USSR had vetoed) wrote, "The Soviets knew everything about Waldheim. He managed to continue his studies by working as a Latin and Greek tutor and borrowing funds from relatives.[8]. [13] According to one post-war investigator, prisoners were routinely shot within only a few hundred metres (yards) of Waldheim's office,[14] and 35 kilometres (22mi) away at the Jasenovac concentration camp. "[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]. Waldheim had risen to the pinnacle of international diplomacy and was running for president of Austria when his past caught up with him. I had either to continue to serve or be executed. Share. He probably signed some papers that had to do with deportations and so on. I remember one case, hed been back and forth to the United States 25 times, and all of a sudden he didnt qualify. [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. Once I went to see him when I was in Austria for these COCOM [Coordinating Commission on Multilateral Export Controls] negotiations. He added that the secretary-general condemned any form of racial discrimination and genocide. On a personal note, when I served in Vienna, the Chancellors aide was a good friend of mine. Well, there was never really any good evidence that tied Waldheim directly to atrocities. Kurt Waldheim served in the Austrian army as a volunteer (193637) before he began to study for a diplomatic career. Kurt Waldheim was born on 21 December 1918 in a village named Sankt Andra-Wordern, located close to Vienna, Austria to Watzlawick and his wife. An international investigation by a committee of historians cleared Waldheim of complicity in war crimes, but as president he was a rather isolated figure on the international scene. In March 1938, Adolf Hitler ordered his army into Austria and annexed the country. [3] Watzlawick (original Czech spelling Vclavk) changed his name to "Waldheim" that year as the Habsburg monarchy collapsed and eventually rose to become superintendent of schools for the Tulln District, attaining the rank of Regierungsrat (government councillor). They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 4 Min Read. Would we have done this to the German Chancellor? [27] Outgoing Mexican President Luis Echeverra finally entered the race in October 1976, making Waldheim the only Secretary-General to face a contested re-selection campaign. 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 . It was reported, for example, that he had received a special decoration in 1942 from the Ustasha, Croatias Nazi puppet regime, for valorous conduct in the brutal repression of guerrillas and civilians in Bosnia. I didnt deal with him because he was much above my level. 450. There was a Finnish diplomat named Jacobson who was Finnish and Jewish, who was another candidate running for Secretary General of the UN. Posted by 5 days ago. Political career. After all, Waldheim was their democratically elected President whom the U.S. had supported for the UN Secretary General and now we were banning him as a war criminal. This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 18:08. Before the presidential elections, investigative journalist Alfred Worm revealed in the Austrian weekly news magazine Profil that Waldheim's recently published autobiography had several omissions about his life between 1938 and 1945. Janks go on a date with John DeBella's wife (which Howard predicted would happen in his battle with DeBella in Philadelphia), the "Gross Video Contest" winners, Boy-Gary dressed as an ape and . Kurt Waldheim of Austria served as the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations for ten years, succeeding U Thant in 1972. For if history teaches us anything, it is that the Hitlers and the Mengeles could never have accomplished their atrocious deeds by themselves. While he was running for President in Austria in 1985, his service as an intelligence officer in the Wehrmacht . There was no comment or statement from the governors office Thursday on the death of Waldheim.). Reply. (Waldheim, second from left, with Italian General Ercole Roncaglia, Col. Hans Herbert Macholz, and SS-GruppenfhrerArtur Phleps at Podgorica airfield, May 1943.). Waldheims survivors include his wife, Elisabeth, and three children. - Title based on information from slide mount and other caption information provided by the photographer. He was 88. [45] Although Waldheim had stated that he was unaware of any crimes taking place, the committee cited evidence that Waldheim must have known about war crimes. The decision to ban Waldheim was made by Attorney General [Edwin] Meese and Secretary Shultz went along with it. A fireball can never be helpful in this situation. With Kurt Waldheim, Ruth Beckermann, Yasser Arafat, Hubertus Czernin. All of a sudden, we had this case that involved the President of Austria. Footage of Austria's then-presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim speaking at a rally, from "The Waldheim Waltz." Credit: Ruth Beckermann filmproduktion The 90-minute film interweaves the video shot by Beckermann with other archival footage, creating a dramatic account of the buildup to the 1986 election - a brief period in history when the eyes . 463. Unable to win a third term as secretary-general, Waldheim left the U.N. in 1982 and served as a visiting professor of diplomacy at Georgetown University in Washington for the next two years. Kurt Waldheim. 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.". president of Austria and secretary-general of the United Nations. Declassified documents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency show that the CIA had been aware of some details of his wartime past since 1945. Many years later when I was a senior member of the Policy Planning Staff, we were asked whether the U.S. should support Waldheim for a second term as Secretary General of the United Nations. His father, Walter, the son of an impoverished blacksmith, became the local school superintendent and married a daughter of the mayor. 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 . It was a complicated situation because some years earlier the United States had supported . With Howard Stern, Dominic Barbara, Richard Belzer, Downtown Julie Brown. [9] Shortly thereafter he became a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's original paramilitary wing. ", Kurt Waldheim dies at 88; ex-UN chief hid Nazi past, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/world/europe/14iht-waldheim.3.6141106.html. His intelligence regarding work in Greece during World War II raised more questions than answers. His candidacy became controversial, however, with the dissemination of wartime and postwar documents that pointed to his having been an interpreter and intelligence officer for a German army unit that engaged in brutal reprisals against Yugoslav Partisans and civilians and deported most of the Jewish population of Salonika (Thessalonki), Greece, to Nazi death camps in 1943. They were also convinced that the U.S. was picking on Austria because it was small. Waldheim je bil generalni sekretar OZN (1972-1981) in predsednik Avstrije (1986-1992). *** In 1987 the US Justice Department declared Kurt Waldheim a dangerous agent; forever forbidding his re-entry onto US soil. [Waldheim] was banned from the United States for his whole term of office, and because he wasnt allowed into the United States, most other major countries did not invite him for official visits. [4] Kurt Waldheim, (born December 21, 1918, Sankt Andr-Wrdern, Austriadied June 14, 2007, Vienna), Austrian diplomat and statesman who served two terms as the fourth secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), from 1972 to 1981. Also present was Luis Durnwalder, governor of the Italian province of South Tyrol. On 27 April 1987, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that former UN Secretary-General and Austrian President Kurt Waldheim would not be allowed to enter the United States after it was conclusively determined that he participated in Nazi war crimes during World War II. BODDE: Kurt Waldheim was President of Austria. [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". 1. He refused to resign, but, finally acknowledging years of trials, difficulties and disappointments, he chose not to run for reelection to a second six-year term. 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. They claimed that prominent German politicians who were involved in worse things than Waldheim have gotten into the United States. Thomas Klestil, Waldheims successor as President, was just completing his tour as Ambassador to the U.S. when the decision was made and he was crushed. It took hundreds of thousands of ordinary men - well-meaning but ambitious men like Kurt Waldheim - to make the Third Reich possible. 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