Waldheim was born in Sankt Andr-Wrdern, near Vienna, on 21 December 1918. 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). Kurt Waldheim of Austria served as the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations for ten years, succeeding U Thant in 1972. [52:55, April] Kurt Waldheim Jr. and "Guess Who's The Jew," Washington DC pro-choice rally, Reporter Jim Jensen parody. [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. Only after a blue-ribbon historical commission concluded in 1988 that Waldheim knew about and failed to prevent deportations and other atrocities did the former United Nations secretary-general admit that he knew what the Nazi regime was doing. - Date based on span of years Waldheim served as Secretary General of the United Nations. [7] Following the annexation, Waldheim's father was briefly arrested by the Gestapo and dismissed from his post, while Waldheim's scholarship was cancelled. [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). 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. Podgorica, Yugoslavia. Beyond that, though, he continued to deny an active role in widespread executions and abuse and blamed his downfall on a conspiracy by American Jews. And although the scandal around him kicked up new poisonous clouds of anti-Semitism, when he finally left public life, in disgrace, Austria also began a slow process of recognizing its sins. Han var Frenta nationernas generalsekreterare 1972-1981 och sterrikes frbundspresident 1986-1992. This marked the first time that a head of state had been put on an immigration watchlist. Also present was Luis Durnwalder, governor of the Italian province of South Tyrol. Kurt Josef Waldheim (21 December 1918 - 14 June 2007) was an Austrian diplomat and conservative politician. [45] Although Waldheim had stated that he was unaware of any crimes taking place, the committee cited evidence that Waldheim must have known about war crimes. Howard Stern's first Pay-Per-View (although only on the East Coast) with various guests and, not surprisingly, an audience in their negligees and underpants. China was determined to unseat him this time and lined up a strong candidate in Salim Ahmed Salim of Tanzania. Waldheim won an accidental victory in the third round of voting when those three permanent members failed to coordinate their vetoes and all abstained. [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. Like many ambitious people, he loved publicity. Reply . Then in November 1938, he enrolled in the SA, the paramilitary Nazi organization of storm troopers. Thu 14 Jun 2007 19.08 EDT. WALDHEIM AFFAIR. In those days, before the taint of scandal, Waldheim was often called the dapper diplomat. Accompanied by his vivacious wife, the former Elisabeth Ritschl, he was the epitome of Old World aristocratic style, a gallant gentleman in bespoke suits who kissed womens hands, starred on the cocktail-and-banquet circuit and oozed obsequious charm. In 1971 he ran for president on the Peoples Party ticket but lost. English: Kurt Waldheim, secretary-general of the United Nations, during a press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York City On the other hand, I never saw any evidence, and I saw a lot of the files and so on, that would classify him as a war criminal. Congress had passed the Holtzman Act, named after Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, to legalize the expulsion and prevention of suspected Nazi criminals from the U.S. thirty years after the end of WWII. The fact that Waldheim played a significant role in military units that unquestionably committed war crimes makes him at the very least morally complicit in those crimes.". The former Secretary General of the United Nations and Ambassador to France and Canada was initially seen as an obvious choice for the position, which is primarily a ceremonial role. Kurt Waldheim; Sankt Andre-Verdern, blizu Bea, Austrija, 21. decembar 1918 Be 14. jun 2007) je bio austrijski politiar i diplomata.Njegov izbor za predsednika Austrije 1986. godine bio je zasenjen otkriima da je pripadao jedinici Hitlerovog Vermahta koja je u tadanjoj Jugoslaviji poinila ratne zloine nad civilima tokom Drugog svetskog rata. Kurt Waldheim, who has died aged 88 of heart failure, served two terms as secretary-general of the United Nations (1972-82) before it was revealed that he had lied about . Waldheim during a press conference at the, Waldheim's voice recording on the Voyager Golden Record, Report of the International Historical Commission of 8 February 1988, section on "Membership in National Socialist Organizations", as cited, e.g., in, Israeli-Ugandan Relations in the Time of Idi Amin by. Reply. "Waldheim was clearly not a psychopath like Dr. Josef Mengele nor a hate-filled racist like Adolf Hitler," Herzstein wrote. Wikipedia je trna znamka neprofitne organizacije Wikimedia Foundation Inc.; Pravilnik o zasebnosti I was listening to an Audiobook recently, specifically the book KL by Nikolaus Wachsmann. Kurt Waldheim, the erudite diplomat who served as U.N. secretary-general and Austrias president but left the world stage a pariah after his Nazi past was exposed, died Thursday. [34], Waldheim had previously claimed to have received a medical discharge after being wounded in winter 1942. Still, the Waldheim affair took up a lot of our time. info); St. Andr-Wrdern, Baixa ustria, 21 de dezembro de 1918 - Viena, 14 de junho de 2007 [ 1]) foi um diplomata e poltico austraco, Secretrio-geral da ONU de 1972 a 1981 e Presidente da Repblica da ustria de 1986 a 1992. We were treating Austria shabbily and finally the State Department forced the Justice Department to negotiate a new arrangement. He was a staff officer. Austrian political figure and diplomat. Then it is easy to make references to the present. He did lie about his military service. The decision to ban Waldheim was made by Attorney General [Edwin] Meese and Secretary Shultz went along with it. Kurt Waldheim, avstrijski astnik, pravnik, diplomat in politik, * 21. december 1918, Sankt Andr-Wrdern, Spodnja Avstrija, 14. junij 2007, Dunaj. As a member of the German army, I did what was necessary to survive the day, the system, the war -- no more, no less, he wrote in the 1996 book, The Answer.. SPIRO: My job was to track down members of the former German intelligence services in Austria. There had been a lot of political pressure on the Administration to ban Waldheim, especially from the World Jewish Congress and other people to do this. Waldheims UN secretaryship beginning in 1972 was characterized as efficient and ministerial. He was the elected president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. He apparently gained the sympathy of the Austrian electorate and won the presidency with 54% of the vote. And so, apparently in the clear, Waldheim entered the Austrian foreign service at wars end. Kurt Waldheim synonyms, Kurt Waldheim pronunciation, Kurt Waldheim translation, English dictionary definition of Kurt Waldheim. However, first and foremost, it is a film about the process of the affair. So decisions were made then in the light of the necessities at the time and were perfectly legitimate, I think. "[40] He said that he had never fired a shot or even seen a partisan. They were also convinced that the U.S. was picking on Austria because it was small. In 1956 he was made Ambassador to Canada, returning to the Ministry in 1960, after which he became the Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations in 1964. 463. But thanks to his parents' middle-class standing, he and his brother and sister suffered few of the economic deprivations that most Austrians endured during the 1920s. Kurt Waldheim's rebellious, ne'er do well (((son))) I had either to continue to serve or be executed. Sklici in opombe Glej tudi . [14], Waldheim's name appears on the Wehrmacht's "honour list" of those responsible for the militarily successful operation. William Bodde Jr, interviewed in October 1998, reflects on his time as a staff aide in Vienna during this controversy. On the other hand, some bad guys showed up. He was the world's top diplo. His father, Walter, the son of an impoverished blacksmith, became the local school superintendent and married a daughter of the mayor. Kurt Waldheim served in the Austrian army as a volunteer (193637) before he began to study for a diplomatic career. He was 88. Kurt Waldheim, who was president of Austria from 1986 to 1992, systematically lied about his wartime past. Those who relate this film only to current problems . 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. His family was with him when he succumbed to cardiovascular failure. Still, he denied any role in war crimes. He said that he had known about some of the things that had happened, and had been horrified, but could not see what else he could have done. As a gymnasium student in Klosterneuburg, he excelled at languages and was a competent violinist in the school orchestra, also enjoying swimming, boating and tennis. The Nazi puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia, awarded Waldheim the Medal of the Crown of King Zvonimir in silver with an oak branches cluster. Many Austrians apparently viewed Waldheim's life as a parable of their own. 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. (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. With Kurt Waldheim, Ruth Beckermann, Yasser Arafat, Hubertus Czernin. There was a Finnish diplomat named Jacobson who was Finnish and Jewish, who was another candidate running for Secretary General of the UN. [51] The report catalogues evidence that, the U.S. government concluded, proved that Waldheim had taken part in, among other actions: the transfer of civilian prisoners to the SS for exploitation as slave labor; the mass deportation of civiliansincluding Jews from Greek islands and the town of Banja Luka, Yugoslaviato concentration and death camps; the utilization of antisemitic propaganda; the mistreatment and execution of Allied prisoners; and reprisal executions of hostages and other civilians. A year after the first allegations surfaced, the U.S. Justice Department took the highly unusual step of placing the sitting Austrian presidents name on a watch list, which prohibited him from entering the United States. But for whatever reason, he and thousands of others eluded prosecution in the chaos of postwar Europe. [22] His diplomatic efforts particularly in the Middle East were overshadowed by the diplomacy of then U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. So even if they were Romanians or Yugoslavs, if they emigrated to the U.S. from Austria they could be deported back to Austria. The Justice lawyer picked up Pan Am 103 in Frankfurt and was killed by the bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland.. No less a figure than the late Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi hunter from Vienna, refused to label Waldheim a war criminal, although he was certain Waldheim knew more than he admitted. 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