Im happy Im not an intellectual ball of fire, Waldheim told reporters who gathered in his opulently appointed Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan when he was first elected to head the U.N. I dont think you can solve the U.N.'s problems that way. The World Jewish Congress was particularly active in pushing this, and Secretary [of State George] Shultz had absolutely no sympathy for Waldheim himself. After the war, Lohr was condemned and executed as a war criminal. Waldheim published an autobiography. So far, the Justice Department was acting completely aboveboard. Ironically, Thomas Klestil was elected President when Waldheim completed his term of office. They were also convinced that the U.S. was picking on Austria because it was small. Omissions? Waldheim was a member of the Austrian People's Party, a World War II Veteran and . I was horrified. [9] Shortly thereafter he became a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's original paramilitary wing. At one point, years later, Waldheim told an interviewer that he had joined merely to shield his family, a tactic adopted by many living under Nazi occupation. With Kurt Waldheim, Ruth Beckermann, Yasser Arafat, Hubertus Czernin. [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. They were sure that this decision had more to with American domestic politics than it did with Waldheim. As a member of the German army, I did what was necessary to survive the day, the system, the war -- no more, no less, he wrote in the 1996 book, The Answer.. He oversaw effective and sometimes massive relief efforts in Bangladesh, Nicaragua, the Sudan-Sahel area of Africa, and Guatemala, as well as peacekeeping operations in Cyprus, the two Yemens, Angola, Guinea, and, especially, the Middle East. 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. (Waldheim, second from left, with Italian General Ercole Roncaglia, Col. Hans Herbert Macholz, and SS-GruppenfhrerArtur Phleps at Podgorica airfield, May 1943.). Pope John Paul II welcomed Waldheim to the Vatican in the Austrian leaders first official trip abroad after his election as president, a recognition that provoked anger across the Jewish world and in Washington. However, there was a clause in the displaced persons legislation that stated if you lied on your application to come to the U.S., you could be deported back to the country from where you emigrated. But what could I do? I remember one guy who had been in the Gestapo, and we had records that showed that he had been an interrogator at an American POW camp. William Bodde Jr, interviewed in October 1998, reflects on his time as a staff aide in Vienna during this controversy. Still, the Waldheim affair took up a lot of our time. [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 Justice lawyer picked up Pan Am 103 in Frankfurt and was killed by the bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland.. Hes also a sign of Mexicos healthcare crisis, Bola Tinubu, the declared winner of Nigerias presidential election, appeals for unity, A 5,000-year-old restaurant highlights Iraqs archaeological renaissance, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Chicago Mayor Lightfoot ousted; Vallas, Johnson in runoff, Fiery Greece train collision kills 32, injures at least 85, Column: Supreme Court conservatives may want to block student loan forgiveness. Last week, former UN Secretary-General and Austrian President Kurt Waldheim died at the age of 88. M. Kurt Waldheim a entam son deuxime mandat de cinq ans en tant que . "[40] He said that he had never fired a shot or even seen a partisan. [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. Politics portal; Kurt Josef Waldheim (German: [kt valtham] (); 21 December 1918 - 14 June 2007) was an Austrian politician and diplomat.Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981 and president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. So even if they were Romanians or Yugoslavs, if they emigrated to the U.S. from Austria they could be deported back to Austria. Because of his known anti-Nazi sympathies, Walter Waldheim was twice arrested by the Gestapo and lost his job. Many were displaced persons at the end of the war and ended up in Austria. [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 fact that Waldheim played a significant role in military units that unquestionably committed war crimes makes him at the very least morally complicit in those crimes.". We were treating Austria shabbily and finally the State Department forced the Justice Department to negotiate a new arrangement. [33]:411 The events of 1981 established a two-term limit on the office, and no Secretary-General since Waldheim has run for a third term. [26], Waldheim ran for a second term in the 1976 UN Secretary-General selection. Kurt Waldheim was born in a village outside Vienna on Dec. 21, 1918, the eldest son of a conservative Roman Catholic school inspector. Waldheim was born in Sankt Andr-Wrdern, near Vienna, on 21 December 1918. The United States became the third country granted access to the file. That claim was repeated in two autobiographies and routinely to journalists. Then Ryan or someone from OSI would leak to The New York Times that they had nabbed another Nazi and deported him to Austria. But for whatever reason, he and thousands of others eluded prosecution in the chaos of postwar Europe. During his campaign to become President of Austria, the Social Democrat opposition made charges about his activities during the war. A close political ally of Waldheim dismissed the commission as being full of Waldheims enemies -- Jews and Socialists -- and thus not credible. 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. For if history teaches us anything, it is that the Hitlers and the Mengeles could never have accomplished their atrocious deeds by themselves. They would have the person renounce his or her U.S. citizenship. Despite his humble beginnings, Waldheim was able to pursue . He was the elected president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. Kurt Waldheim; Sankt Andre-Verdern, blizu Bea, Austrija, 21. decembar 1918 Be 14. jun 2007) je bio austrijski politiar i diplomata.Njegov izbor za predsednika Austrije 1986. godine bio je zasenjen otkriima da je pripadao jedinici Hitlerovog Vermahta koja je u tadanjoj Jugoslaviji poinila ratne zloine nad civilima tokom Drugog svetskog rata. And, it was later discovered, he had served with the Abwehr, which was the German military counter-intelligence, and was probably co-responsible for war crimes. He was 88. Before the decision, the Austrians would come to Washington and ask us not to do it. "[54], Throughout his term as President (19861992), Waldheim was officially deemed persona non grata by the United States and, officially or informally, by nearly every other nation in the world outside the Arab world. And although the scandal around him kicked up new poisonous clouds of anti-Semitism, when he finally left public life, in disgrace, Austria also began a slow process of recognizing its sins. Waldheim did not challenge the authenticity of the documents and instead sought to explain his actions as the hard choices one must make during a reign of terror to survive and to protect ones family and future. 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. He came in and appealed. president of Austria and secretary-general of the United Nations. Kurt Waldheim was an Austrian diplomat and statesman who served two terms as the fourth secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), from 1972 to 1981. Notes. In 1994, Pope John Paul II awarded Waldheim a knighthood in the Order of Pius IX and his wife a papal honor. [29][30], Waldheim was the first Secretary-General to visit North Korea, in 1979. I suspect that he was more concerned with the hostility that he would face in Vienna in the wake of a ban. They thought he was treated badly by the U.S. As a result of the ban Waldheim had a tainted presidency. The film "Waldheim's Waltz" shows exactly the opposite. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 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). "[25], After Operation Entebbe on 7 July 1976 in which Israeli commandos freed more than 100 Israeli and Jewish passengers held captive in Entebbe Airport (Uganda's main airport) by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and German Revolutionary Cells fighters protected by forces of dictator Idi Amin, and where all the hijackers, three hostages, and 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed Waldheim described the raid as a "serious violation of the national sovereignty of a United Nations member state". 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. Waldheims survivors include his wife, Elisabeth, and three children. Hnt syytettiin osallisuudesta murhaan sek salaliittoon ja sieppaukseen, joiden . While he was running for President in Austria in 1985, his service as an intelligence officer in the Wehrmacht . 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. Waldheim was a member of the Austrian People's Party (sterreichische Volkspartei, or VP) and served as foreign minister. These included the third session of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (Santiago, April 1972), the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, June 1972), the third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea (Caracas, June 1974), the Third World Population Conference (Bucharest, August 1974) and the World Food Conference (Rome, November 1974), and the World Conference on Women, 1975 (Mexico City, June 1975). Herbert John Spiro, interviewed beginning in April 1994, served from 1945-65 as Chief of Counterintelligence at U.S. Headquarters in Vienna. Klestils friendships didnt do him much good. [59] 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 . [39], Waldheim called the allegations, which grew in magnitude in the ensuing months, "pure lies and malicious acts". 463. After a distinguished diplomatic career, culminating in 10 years as UN Secretary General, Dr Kurt Waldheim found himself embroiled in bitter controversy over his war record more than 40 years after the end of the World War II. Political career. BODDE: Kurt Waldheim was President of Austria. It was not until Waldheim left the United Nations and then ran for president of Austria in 1986 that his wartime past became widely known. Love Fred and the racier shit but I never found any of the various Kurt Waldheim Jr bits funny. Of course, this made the Austrians very unhappy. Those who relate this film only to current problems . His father, Walter, the son of an impoverished blacksmith, became the local school superintendent and married a daughter of the mayor. Kurt Waldheim (1918-2007) served as secretary-general of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. 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. VIENNA, Austria - Kurt Waldheim, whose legacy as U.N. secretary-general was overshadowed by revelations that he belonged to a German army unit that . 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. That was true. Report Save Follow. Waldheim was supported by 11 votes, including the Soviet Union, and led the first two rounds of voting. 100 comments. 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 . Then in November 1938, he enrolled in the SA, the paramilitary Nazi organization of storm troopers. Kurt Josef Waldheim (21 December 1918 - 14 June 2007) was an Austrian diplomat and conservative politician. The aristocratic poseur, Waldheim, was the grandson of a Czech blacksmith surnamed Vaclavik. 21 June 2007. We wanted the information and we did not want it to fall into the hands of the Soviets. Kurt Waldheim, who was president of Austria from 1986 to 1992, systematically lied about his wartime past. . It was a complicated situation because some years earlier the United States had supported Waldheims successful candidacy for United Nations Secretary General and now we were going to ban him as a war criminal from entry into the U.S. Waldheim had been in the German army and lied about his military service. The son of a civil servant, Waldheim graduated from the Vienna Consular Academy in 1938 and from the University of Vienna, where he received a doctor of laws degree, in 1944. And he portrayed himself as the victim of a smear campaign orchestrated by outside, foreign forces. Kurt Waldheim of Austria served as the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations for ten years, succeeding U Thant in 1972. We soon found that we couldnt get Germany back on its feet without tapping the expertise of people who had been party members. 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