Waldheim Whitewash

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/09/waldheim-whitewash

From a New York Times news article today about the Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal:

The book also shows that Mr. Wiesenthal came to the quiet and consistent aid of Kurt Waldheim, the former secretary general of the United Nations and president of Austria, when he was being accused by Jewish groups of having lied about his service in the German Army. The harshest suspicions of war crimes against Mr. Waldheim were never proved and Mr. Wiesenthal's role was largely as a behind-the-scenes consultant to his fellow Austrian.

This is all a strange way of putting it.

A Times obituary of Waldheim had it more accurately:

Although it was never proved that Waldheim himself committed atrocities during World War II, he was a lieutenant in army intelligence, attached to brutal German military units that executed thousands of Yugoslav partisans and civilians and deported thousands of Greek Jews to death camps from 1942 to 1944. 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.

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.

by Ira Stoll  |  Sep 3, 2010 at 9:26 am Related Topics:  Press, Religion receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list