Waldheim’s Nazi past followed him
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, June 14, 2007
VIENNA, Austria – Former U.N. chief Kurt Waldheim, who was barred from the United States for two decades after revelations he belonged to a Nazi Germany army unit that committed World War II atrocities, died Thursday. He was 88.
Although it was never proved that Waldheim personally committed war crimes, he left public life beneath a cloud of disgrace and died with his name still on a watch list that prohibited foreigners considered undesirable from visiting the United States.
State broadcaster ORF said he died Thursday afternoon of heart failure at his home in Vienna, with family members at his bedside. He had been hospitalized late last month with an infection and a high fever.
Waldheim’s legacy as U.N. secretary-general from 1972-81 – and his later tenure as Austrian president from 1986-92 – was tarnished by his secretive wartime past in the Balkans.
The details did not become common knowledge until five years after he left the world body. But the revelations led to a bruising controversy at home – one that ultimately damaged Austria’s reputation abroad. During Waldheim’s six-year term as president, the country was largely shunned by foreign leaders, and he never honored his pledge to be a strong leader.
His backers saw him as an innocent victim of a smear campaign, while opponents clamored for his resignation.
His past began surfacing early in his campaign for president, when he published a memoir that did not mention his service for the Nazis. In his official biographies, Waldheim initially said he had been wounded at the Russian front in 1941 and had returned to Austria to continue his studies.
Only after being confronted with documents showing his unit had killed partisans and civilians, along with allegations that the victims included thousands of children, did Waldheim gradually revise his official resume.
Under pressure, he acknowledged he was transferred to the Balkans in April 1942; went to Arsakli, Greece, as an interpreter that summer; and, in April 1943, became an assistant adjutant with Army Group E, Department I-C. Its commander, Gen. Alexander Loehr, was later executed in Yugoslavia for war crimes.
Waldheim consistently maintained his innocence, defending himself against disclosures made by his main accuser, the World Jewish Congress, and by foreign media.
The World Jewish Congress published supporting documents, some of which bore Waldheim’s signature or initials. But he insisted that his job was merely to verify their authenticity, not to act on the information or give orders.
As pressure mounted from all sides, Yugoslav newspapers published a facsimile of a 1947 document showing Waldheim’s name on a list of German officers who took part in the infamous Mount Kozara operation. According to some Yugoslav versions, 68,000 people died in the offensive.
