National Socialist German Students' League, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Austria's refusal to address its national role in the Holocaust, Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI), "Former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim dies at 88 Haaretz Israel News", "Kurt Waldheim: Austrian head of the UN who as president of his country was later tainted by charges of complicity in Nazi atrocities", "Wir sterreicher whlen, wen wir wollen", "Suomen ulkoministerin johto tiesi Waldheimin natsimenneisyyden jo 1971", Israeli Ugandan Relations in the Time of Idi Amin, "July 4, Day of Operation Entebbe, Israel Upgrades Uganda Airport", "It's Election Year at U.N., With Waldheim Post Open", "Waldheim is Backed by Security Council for Five Years More", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY_mJLwBgrc&t=45s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxXE_4nyxUg, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R97kxi1InWc&t=13s, Stealing Beauty: Dispute Rages Over Austria's Looted Art, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency (RG 263), Bericht der internationalen Historikerkommission, Schlussbetrachtung, "WALDHEIM BARRED FROM ENTERING U.S. OVER ROLE IN WAR", https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-hrsp/legacy/2011/02/04/04-09-87waldheim-rpt.pdf, "Waldheim, ex-UN leader and Nazi, buried in Austria", "Kurt Waldheim dies at 88; ex-UN chief hid Nazi past", "Former Austrian president whose term was marred by wartime service buried", Trauerfeier fr Altbundesprsident Dr. Kurt Waldheim im Wiener Stephansdom, 23.06.2007, Ban Ki-moon voices sadness at death of former Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Austria and Nazism: Owning Up to the Past (A BBC Report), The Waldheim Report: International Commission of Historians, Video of Kurt Waldheim sworn in as UN Secretary-General, GREEK JEWS CHALLENGING WALDHEIM by HENRY KAMM, Ambassador of Austria to the United Nations, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kurt_Waldheim&oldid=1141564433, Permanent Representatives of Austria to the United Nations, Secretaries-General of the United Nations, Recipients of the Iron Cross (1939), 2nd class, Austrian military personnel of World War II, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Interpreter with the liaison staff attached to the Italian. 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]. A biographical drama film about Kurt Josef Waldheim, former UN Secretary General and the controversy of his participation and role in the Nazi regime during WW II . Reply. And so, apparently in the clear, Waldheim entered the Austrian foreign service at wars end. In 1987 the US Justice Department declared Kurt Waldheim a dangerous agent; forever forbidding his re-entry onto US soil. Sound, Fury, Brilliance & Booze: Faulkner in Post-War Japan, Protecting Greenland: The American Consulate at Godthab, 1940-42, Raymond Hare: Our Man in Cairo during WWII. Song, Little Ricky 8/14/86 Susan Berkley, Cindi Lauper Record, Phila. 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. Reply . Austria was also getting something of a free pass from the Allies, who excused it from the payment of reparations and other punishments meted out to Germany. (Later, when he was running for governor of California, Schwarzeneggers aides said he realized that the invitation and the toast had been a stupid mistake, one that -- had he known then what he knew later -- he would not have committed. [6] In the autumn of 1937, now an army reservist, Waldheim entered the prestigious Consular Academy in Vienna on a scholarship, where he began his studies in law and diplomacy. Waldheim had served a painful term as Austrian President, marked from beginning . In the first round of voting, Waldheim lost to Salim by one vote. He is a figurehead and spends a great amount of time visiting other countries. [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. It is not a career-enhancing move, to get thrown out of the Secretarys office and to have done so in association with the likes of Ron Lauder made it doubly unpleasant. In 1939, Waldheim was drafted into the German Wehrmacht. This became the "Waldheim Affair" which was important in exposing the criminal role . It was odd. He was 88. Wikipedia je trna znamka neprofitne organizacije Wikimedia Foundation Inc.; Pravilnik o zasebnosti Allegations concerning Dr. Kurt Waldheim hearing before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, [Leather Bound] [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. Probably. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. I remember one case, hed been back and forth to the United States 25 times, and all of a sudden he didnt qualify. He was a staff officer. He was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and President of Austria from 1986 to 1992. . 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. That position earned Wiesenthal the enmity of some Jewish groups. - Gift; Bernard Gotfryd; 2004; (DLC/PP-2004:032). Kurt Waldheim, the former UN secretary general and president of Austria whose hidden complicity in Nazi war crimes was exposed late in his career, died Thursday in Vienna, Austrian media reported. What the U.N. needs is a quiet approach, he said. May 22, 1943. [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). Office of Special Investigations, United States Department of Justice Criminal Division internal investigative report: Eli M. Rosenbaum, "The Kurt Waldheim Affair," in Ronald S. Lauder (Foreword) and Menachem Z. Rosensaft (Editor). Waldheim affair, controversy concerning the military record of former Austrian diplomat and statesman Kurt Waldheim (1918-2007) and his knowledge about war crimes committed by Austria during World War II. (Croatia and Bosnia were part of Yugoslavia at the time.). 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. 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. [34], Waldheim had previously claimed to have received a medical discharge after being wounded in winter 1942. Waldheim applied for membership in the National Socialist German Students' League (NSDStB), a division of the Nazi Party. [46] The International Committee in February 1988 concluded that Waldheim had been "in close proximity to some Nazi atrocities, knew they were going on and made no attempt to stop them". That was the kind of fellow I was looking for. The commission did not say Waldheim personally participated in the bloodshed, and he seized on that to claim that he had essentially been exonerated. Kurt Valdhajm (nem. During his campaign to become president in 1986, it became public that . William Bodde Jr, interviewed in October 1998, reflects on his time as a staff aide in Vienna during this controversy. Fred Norris as Kurt Waldheim Jr. and Quentin the Stutterer; Robin Quivers vs Darren the Foot Licker in a best-of-3 tennis match (with Fred the Elephant Boy as umpire) Howard Stern vs Gary Dell'Abate in a best-of-7 tennis match; Vinnie Mazzeo lights his head on fire and Dr. Marshall King hypnotises Kimberly Taylor; Gina Man and Crazy Jerry Our response to both sides was that this was a legal decision that would be made by the Justice Department based on U.S. law. Then we supported him to be Secretary General of the United Nations. He argued that the Austrian Prime Minister, a Social Democrat, was about to visit the U.S. and it would be a great embarrassment to him if we banned Waldheim. Foreign Affairs magazine, SeptemberOctober, 1995 (Volume 74 No. Kurt Waldheim served in the Austrian army as a volunteer (193637) before he began to study for a diplomatic career. Waldheim had unsuccessfully sought election as President of Austria in 1971, but his second attempt on 8 June 1986 proved successful. Knfel, Ulrike and Kraske, Marion (4 April 2008), Wiesenthal, Simon (1999) "The Waldheim Case" in. It was a period when the world body was increasingly dominated by third world rhetoric and paralyzed by disagreements between the superpowers. For two years beginning in 1968, he was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs for the Austrian People's Party, before going back as Permanent Representative to the U.N. in 1970. 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. Podgorica, Yugoslavia. 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. Secretary-general of the United Nations (1972-81). But sure, its this kind of ex post facto thing that we got into. Waldheim was a member of the Austrian People's Party, a World War II Veteran and . The United States and United Kingdom initially supported him in the second round of voting. Austria had continued to portray itself as a victim of the Third Reich, rather than its collaborator, long after Germany was paying reparations and banning neo-Nazi groups. Also present was Luis Durnwalder, governor of the Italian province of South Tyrol. [49][50] The 232-page internal Department of Justice 9 April 1987 investigative report was released in 1994 by that agency, and it is available at the agency's website. Fischer also praised Waldheim for his efforts to solve international crises and for his contributions to world peace. Waldheim je bil generalni sekretar OZN (1972-1981) in predsednik Avstrije (1986-1992). Waldheims UN secretaryship beginning in 1972 was characterized as efficient and ministerial. Waldheims survivors include his wife, Elisabeth, and three children. Obituary: Kurt Waldheim. However, China was still opposed to Waldheim and approached several Third World countries seeking challengers. After losing the presidential election, Waldheim ran for Secretary-General of the United Nations in the 1971 selection. During his tenure, he won praise for his handling of negotiations to establish a U.N. peacekeeping mission after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and during an unsuccessful attempt to mediate the U.S. hostage crisis in Tehran in 1980, he braved an angry mob of Iranians waving wooden legs and arm stumps (supposed victims of torture under the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi). Earlier this week, it was examined by the Israeli and Austrian ambassadors. Kurt Josef Waldheim (21 December 1918 - 14 June 2007) was an Austrian diplomat and conservative politician. [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. During 196870 he served as Austrian foreign minister. [29][30], Waldheim was the first Secretary-General to visit North Korea, in 1979. His father, Walter, the son of an impoverished blacksmith, became the local school superintendent and married a daughter of the mayor. Last week, former UN Secretary-General and Austrian President Kurt Waldheim died at the age of 88. I said Kurt Waldheim was the perfect Viennese head waiter type, and what the UN needed more than anything else at that time was a Viennese head waiter type as Secretary General. 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. [56] He died on 14 June 2007, at the age of 88 from heart failure. Kurt Waldheim. I didnt deal with him because he was much above my level. Ironically, Thomas Klestil was elected President when Waldheim completed his term of office. That was true. A man named [Allan] Ryan headed the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) in the Justice Department that went after the Nazis. The same year, he was made an honorary member of K.H.V. Escola Roncagli; Waldheim; German Col. Hans Herbert Macholtz and General of the 7th SS-Division, General Artur Phelps. I suspect that he was more concerned with the hostility that he would face in Vienna in the wake of a ban. His father, Walter, the son of an impoverished blacksmith, became the local school superintendent and . Other pieces of evidence included logs and intelligence reports, purportedly bearing his signature, describing mass deportations of Greek Jews to death camps. He had been stationed in Yugoslavia when atrocities were committed. Waldheim admitted that he had not been candid about his past but disclaimed all knowledge of or participation in wartime atrocities. He served in Paris (194851) and was head of the personnel department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vienna from 1951 to 1955. 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). As is now known, he fought on the Eastern Front until he was wounded in December 1941. In the telegram, Amin "applauded the massacre of the Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich and said Germany was the most appropriate locale for this because it was where Hitler burned more than six million Jews". Despite resistance from new member China, Waldheim was elected secretary-general of the U.N. and assumed office in January 1972. In 1971 he ran for president on the Peoples Party ticket but lost. Like many ambitious people, he loved publicity. I was listening to an Audiobook recently, specifically the book KL by Nikolaus Wachsmann. Kurt Waldheim served in the Austrian army . Waldheims father, Walther, was briefly jailed because of his anti-Nazi views and stripped of his job. 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. They identified with his attempts to deny complicity with the Nazis and to view himself as a citizen of a nation occupied by German invaders and forced into their military service. The controversy surrounding Waldheim was particularly problematic for Austria, forcing a tardy reckoning of the nations complicity in Nazi crimes. [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. You might remember that we took the high moral road right after the war and declared that anyone who had belonged to the Nazi Party could only work at menial jobs. Waldheims later claims that he spent the rest of World War II studying law at the University of Vienna were contradicted by the rediscovery in 1986 of documents suggesting that he had been a German army staff officer stationed in the Balkans from 1942 to 1945. Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981 and president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. He was soon conscripted into the German army, however, and served on the Russian front until 1941, when he was wounded. He continued to maintain a few important friends, who in turn suffered for their association. [44], In view of the ongoing international controversy, the Austrian government decided to appoint an international committee of historians to examine Waldheim's life between 1938 and 1945. Kurt Waldheim's rebellious, ne'er do well (((son))) It was intended to prompt us to look into the causes, course and consequences of the Waldheim affair. A son, Gerhard, and another daughter, Christa, followed. Posted by 5 days ago. hide. Nearly a decade later, he brought himself to accept that lying about his past was wrong. Kurt Josef Waldheim (German pronunciation: [kt valdham]; 21 December 1918 - 14 June 2007) was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, accused by Jewish groups of participating in Nazi war crimes, today was barred from entering the United States because of evidence that he persecuted people . 07 "Join The Howard Stern Club" [1:55, February 9] Tiny Tim interview, his last involvement with the show until New Year's Rotten Eve. 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