Waldheim and Austria

Fülszöveg

For six hot months in 1986 the media of the Westem world cast an unwelcome spotlight on the affairs of the small, neutral republic of Austria: a spodight that revealed a nation uncomfortably different from the popular, cozy image of coffee and cake, Hapsburg and Haydn. As Kurt Waldheim, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, ran for President, fragments of his hitherto undisclosed wartime career in the German army came to light, bringing with them strongly denied allegations that he had been involved in atrocities carried out against civilians and prisoners of war in the Balkans. In the ensuing months, the nation itself, its history, and its contemporary culture seemed to be on trial.
InWaldheim and Austria, Richard Basse«, who was based in Vienna for five years and wrote on Central European affairs for The Times (London) and the Spectator, describes the postimperial heritage of twentieth-century Austria and gives a disturbing account of how the Austrians reacted to the... Tovább

Fülszöveg

For six hot months in 1986 the media of the Westem world cast an unwelcome spotlight on the affairs of the small, neutral republic of Austria: a spodight that revealed a nation uncomfortably different from the popular, cozy image of coffee and cake, Hapsburg and Haydn. As Kurt Waldheim, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, ran for President, fragments of his hitherto undisclosed wartime career in the German army came to light, bringing with them strongly denied allegations that he had been involved in atrocities carried out against civilians and prisoners of war in the Balkans. In the ensuing months, the nation itself, its history, and its contemporary culture seemed to be on trial.
InWaldheim and Austria, Richard Basse«, who was based in Vienna for five years and wrote on Central European affairs for The Times (London) and the Spectator, describes the postimperial heritage of twentieth-century Austria and gives a disturbing account of how the Austrians reacted to the rise of Nazism and the Anschluss. For Bassett, the important question is not solely whether Waldheim is a war criminal, though he explores the evidence in great detail, but whether the Austrians themselves have succeeded in coming to terms with their past and creating a healthy, democratic society. His conclusions are controversial and alarming: he says, "Only those foreigners who have lived in the unreal and insincere world which is modem Vienna can perhaps understand how easy it is for a nation to commit collective amnesia."
What is clear from Bassett's account of Waldheim's eleaion campaign and his attempts to disprove the allegations against him is that anti-Semitism and xenophobia remain very close to the surface in a nation that in this century has already participated once in the evils of Nazism.
Richard Bassett was for five years The (London) Times s correspondent in Vienna; his duties there took him frequendy to Hungary, Rumania, and Czechoslovakia. In January 1988 he became correspondent for The Times in Warsaw. He is the author of Guide to Central Europe.
'M Vissza