New Faces of Anti-Semitic Prejudice in Austria: Reflections on the ‘Waldheim Affair’

Abstract

In January 1986 the campaign for the Austrian presidency seemed to many observers to be so singularly boring and uneventful that Peter M. Lingens of the Austrian news magazine Profil could refer to it as ‘the big yawn.’1 This soporific mood soon changed. Profil, closely followed by the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and the New York Times, published documents revealing previously unknown details about the past of the Conservative Party’s candidate for the Presidency, Kurt Waldheim. The disclosures related to Waldheim’s possible membership in two National Socialist organizations, the SA Reiterstandarte and the Nazi Student Union, as well as his service in the Balkans under Alexander Löhr, commander of Army Group E. This Army Group was known for its involvement in the deportations of Greek Jews and for the savagery of its military operations against Yugoslav partisans and their suspected civilian supporters.2 What subsequently became known as the ‘Waldheim affair’ had, in effect, begun.KeywordsYork TimeElection CampaignPress ConferenceConspiracy TheoryNazi RegimeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.