[22] His diplomatic efforts particularly in the Middle East were overshadowed by the diplomacy of then U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. Kurt Waldheim, a widely esteemed former secretary general of the United Nations, was running for president of Austria in March 1986 when it came to light that he had participated in Nazi . During his presidential campaign, the efforts of his political opponents, investigative journalists, historians and the World Jewish Congress uncovered archival evidence of Waldheim's involvement with the Nazi movement as a student and his wartime role in the Balkans. Kurt Josef Waldheim (Sankt Andr-Wrdern, 21 dcembre 1918 - Vienne, 14 juin 2007) . And so, apparently in the clear, Waldheim entered the Austrian foreign service at wars end. Other pieces of evidence included logs and intelligence reports, purportedly bearing his signature, describing mass deportations of Greek Jews to death camps. See 4 March 1986 WABC-TV news report (New York City) on the worldwide exposure that day of Waldheim's Nazi past, at: See WNBC-TV (New York City) 23 March 1986 news report on the World Jewish Congress's revelation of the U.N. War Crimes Commission inclusion of Waldheim on the UNWCC wanted list at: Zuroff, Efraim (April 2002) "Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, 20012002," Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem. [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. He was 88. He won a second term in 1976 and might well have gone on to a third had China not insisted on a candidate from the Third World, throwing its backing to Waldheims ultimate successor, Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru. Waldheim may have been able to hide his past for so long because of the web of intrigue between intelligence services in the Cold War era. 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. This marked the first time that a head of state had been put on an immigration watchlist. 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. report. Kurt Josef Waldheim (21 December 1918 - 14 June 2007) was an Austrian diplomat and conservative politician. "We lived in daily apprehension.". [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). We were treating Austria shabbily and finally the State Department forced the Justice Department to negotiate a new arrangement. The book also alleged that the Soviet Union was aware of Waldheim's alleged involvement in Nazi crimes and that, after vetoing other candidates in order to get Waldheim installed as U.N. Secretary General in 1972, used that information to extract concessions at the United Nations that facilitated KGB espionage in the United States, and that the CIA's failure to anticipate this possibility was a major failure for the intelligence agency. Tracy Wilkinson covers foreign affairs from the Los Angeles Times Washington, D.C., bureau. I had either to continue to serve or be executed. Han var Frenta nationernas generalsekreterare 1972-1981 och sterrikes frbundspresident 1986-1992. Omissions? The World Jewish Congress was actively involved in the campaign to expose Waldheim's war crimes and ban him from . Most often they would take the second choice. But sure, its this kind of ex post facto thing that we got into. It was reported, for example, that he had received a special decoration in 1942 from the Ustasha, Croatias Nazi puppet regime, for valorous conduct in the brutal repression of guerrillas and civilians in Bosnia. If we had done a little more digging, both 1946 and 1972 or whenever it was, we might have found out about him. The official . Hnt syytettiin osallisuudesta murhaan sek salaliittoon ja sieppaukseen, joiden . At the end of the War we issued visas to German scientists who were Nazis and to Nazi intelligence officers as well. Countries refused to deal with him, and he was disinvited from numerous ceremonial functions. Kurt Waldheim of Austria served as the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations for ten years, succeeding U Thant in 1972. At the U.N., Kurt Waldheim was known as "the man who the world trusts.". On the other hand, some bad guys showed up. He went on to win the presidency in 1986, and less than a year later, the U.S. government formally barred him from entering the country, citing evidence it said showed that he had assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of Allied prisoners, Yugoslav partisans, Jews and other civilians. I dont think any other major country received him. Ironically, Thomas Klestil was elected President when Waldheim completed his term of office. [1] He was the eldest child of Walter Watzlawik, a schoolmaster of Czech origin,[2] and his wife Josefine Petrasch. They argued that if Waldheim were President of Germany, the U.S. wouldnt do such a thing because you need Germany. The World Jewish Congress and an Austrian investigative magazine produced documents detailing his membership in Nazi organizations and his military service in the Balkans. But for whatever reason, he and thousands of others eluded prosecution in the chaos of postwar Europe. Kurt Josef Waldheim (German pronunciation: [kt valdham]; 21 December 1918 - 14 June 2007) was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim admitted that he had not been candid about his past but disclaimed all knowledge of or participation in wartime atrocities. Waldheim was supported by 11 votes, including the Soviet Union, and led the first two rounds of voting. 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. Then it is easy to make references to the present. [56] He died on 14 June 2007, at the age of 88 from heart failure. ONCE, in more glorious times, the empire of Austria stretched from Prague and Cracow to Trent, below the Dolomites . This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 18:08. I remember one guy who had been in the Gestapo, and we had records that showed that he had been an interrogator at an American POW camp. 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. Declassified documents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency show that the CIA had been aware of some details of his wartime past since 1945. As is now known, he fought on the Eastern Front until he was wounded in December 1941. 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. The Justice lawyer picked up Pan Am 103 in Frankfurt and was killed by the bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland.. Consequently, he chose not to run for a second term in 1992. Janks go on a date with John DeBella's wife (which Howard predicted would happen in his battle with DeBella in Philadelphia), the "Gross Video Contest" winners, Boy-Gary dressed as an ape and . 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. In the first round of voting, Waldheim lost to Salim by one vote. [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. 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). 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. 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. . Because of his known anti-Nazi sympathies, Walter Waldheim was twice arrested by the Gestapo and lost his job. All of a sudden, we had this case that involved the President of Austria. Kurt Waldheim's rebellious, ne'er do well (((son))) Thu 14 Jun 2007 19.08 EDT. China was determined to unseat him this time and lined up a strong candidate in Salim Ahmed Salim of Tanzania. However, first and foremost, it is a film about the process of the affair. The United States and United Kingdom initially supported him in the second round of voting. Following the fall of the Habsburg Monarchy, his father changed the family surname to . Austrian political figure and diplomat. In 1987 the US Justice Department declared Kurt Waldheim a dangerous agent; forever forbidding his re-entry onto US soil. He was the world's top diplo. It was odd. When I was in Vienna, Waldheim was Political Director of the Foreign Ministry. Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981 and president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. 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. He was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and President of Austria from 1986 to 1992. Waldheim won an accidental victory in the third round of voting when those three permanent members failed to coordinate their vetoes and all abstained. Kurt Waldheim was born on Dec. 21, 1918, in St. Andr-Wrdern, a village near Vienna. Waldheim was a member of the Austrian People's Party, a World War II Veteran and . Despite his humble beginnings, Waldheim was able to pursue university studies in law and diplomacy in Vienna. But the weirdest part was his German Imitation was a dead ringer for Kurt . 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. Later investigations showed that Kurt Waldheim, despite claims that he never belonged to any Nazi organization, apparently joined a Nazi student union three weeks after the Anschluss and then ran with the so-called brownshirts, a Nazi paramilitary group. Kurt Josef Waldheim (German: [kt valtham] (listen); 21 December 1918 14 June 2007) was an Austrian politician and diplomat. [23], On 11 September 1972, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin sent a telegram to Waldheim, copies of which went to Yasser Arafat and Golda Meir. Still, the Waldheim affair took up a lot of our time. Kurt Waldheim Jr. June 15, 2007. At one point, years later, Waldheim told an interviewer that he had joined merely to shield his family, a tactic adopted by many living under Nazi occupation. 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. No reviews. It was not until Waldheim left the United Nations and then ran for president of Austria in 1986 that his wartime past became widely known. He died of heart failure, the state broadcaster ORF reported.Although it was never proved that Waldheim himself committed atrocities . There was testimony that he had roughed up some of the POWs. Many of them were Yugoslavs or Romanians and all of them were old. Like many ambitious people, he loved publicity. Yet no government pressed to bring Waldheim to account or even to reveal his unsavory history. [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. Before the presidential elections, investigative journalist Alfred Worm revealed in the Austrian weekly news magazine Profil that Waldheim's recently published autobiography had several omissions about his life between 1938 and 1945. Klestils friendships didnt do him much good. [21], As secretary-general from 1972 onward, Waldheim opened and addressed a number of major international conferences convened under United Nations auspices. A close political ally of Waldheim dismissed the commission as being full of Waldheims enemies -- Jews and Socialists -- and thus not credible. In the immediate aftermath of the fighting, an Allied war crimes commission recommended that he be tried as a war criminal. There was a Finnish diplomat named Jacobson who was Finnish and Jewish, who was another candidate running for Secretary General of the UN. From his youth, Waldheim was distinguished by his unusual height of 1.92m (6ft 4in). They were sure that this decision had more to with American domestic politics than it did with Waldheim. A fireball can never be helpful in this situation. There was no comment or statement from the governors office Thursday on the death of Waldheim.). Before the decision, the Austrians would come to Washington and ask us not to do it. Cardinal . More posts from the howardstern community. There are 296 days left in the year. Notes. A son, Gerhard, and another daughter, Christa, followed. He had been stationed in Yugoslavia when atrocities were committed. Sklici in opombe Glej tudi . 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. [27] Outgoing Mexican President Luis Echeverra finally entered the race in October 1976, making Waldheim the only Secretary-General to face a contested re-selection campaign. After he was elected President, groups in the U.S. began a campaign to put him on the list of people who were banned from entering the U.S. 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. The Los Angeles Times Washington, D.C., bureau Congress and an investigative... 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