One opportunist among many
F. L. Carsten
WALDHEIM: THE MISSING YEARS
by Robert Edwin Herzstein Grafton Books, £12.95, pp. 303
WALDHEIM by Luc Rosenzweig and Bernard Cohen
Robson Books, £10.95, pp.183
Every Saturday afternoon thousands of Viennese citizens demonstrate in the cen- tre of Vienna against their President, demanding his resignation. The Austrian government — a coalition of socialists and conservative Catholics — threatens to dis- integrate; Austrian families are split be- tween defenders and opponents of Wald- heim. During a recent visit to Vienna I was asked many a time whether the Second Austrian Republic would follow the exam- ple of the First and divide into two bitterly hostile camps, which in the end caused the downfall of democratic government. Although this seems rather unlikely at the moment, Austria is a very unhappy coun- try, rent by deep-seated and bitter con- flicts, among which anti-Semitism is once more rearing its ugly head.
How could one man bring about this state of affairs or cause it to become such a vital issue? That question the two books under review try to answer with a wealth of detail on Waldheim's life and career. Of the two, that by Professor Herzstein is the better one. He was charged by the World Jewish Congress with the task of investigat- ing 'the missing years' in Waldheim's life; there is no doubt that he and other researchers have found much interesting material on Waldheim's hidden past — the side he preferred to forget and never mentioned in his public statements.
Waldheim's father was not a National Socialist; he was briefly arrested by the Nazis after the Anschluss of 1938 and dismissed as a teacher. Until that time, the son shared his father's views; but in November 1938 — after the terrible pog- roms of that month — he joined the SA-Reiterstandarte (SA cavalry), or as he preferred to call it in a questionnaire of November 1945, the NS-Reiterkorps: a non-existing unit, so as to avoid the admis- sion that he had been a member of the ill-famed SA or brown-shirts. If Waldheim wanted to pursue his legal studies, mem- bership of one or the other Nazi organisa- tion was almost impossible to avoid.
Soon he was called up for German military service, during the occupation of the Sudetenland, in France and in Russia, where he was severely wounded. He be- came a lieutenant and was decorated four times. So far there was nothing exceptional in his military career. But it did not end with his hospitalisation and study leave in Vienna, as he implied in later life. When he was fit again he was recalled and from 1942 until 1945 he served in Yugoslavia and Greece as an intelligence officer or as a liaison officer with the Italian army. The war in the Balkans was a war against guerrilla and partisan units which the Germans did not consider part of a regular army. It was a ferocious and cruel war in which no prisoners were taken, villages were burnt as a reprisal, hostages were shot, women and children were sent to concentration camps.
There is no evidence that Waldheim actively participated in these atrocities, but there . is no doubt that as an intelligence officer he knew about them: that is why he did not mention this part of his military career. He also claimed that he did not know of the mass deportations of Serb women and children and of the Jews of Salonika, although at that time he was stationed at German headquarters just outside the town. A German colonel who had served there recently exclaimed: `What, he didn't know? But everyone knew.' After all, the deportation of 68,000 local people from Kozara or of 50,000 Jews from Salonika was not a great secret.
During the German retreat from Greece in 1944, which the Yugoslav partisans tried to impede, once more the Wehrmacht in retaliation carried out massacres and burnt many villages. Waldheim still served as an intelligence officer with Army Group E and was therefore held 'responsible for the retaliation actions carried out by Wehr- macht units in Yugoslavia' by the United Nations War Crimes Commission, on the basis of evidence submitted by the Yugo- slays. This did not hinder his career as an Austrian civil servant in the post-war period. He rose rapidly in the diplomatic service, became the Austrian representa- tive at the United Nations, Austrian fore- ign minister in 1968, and UN General Secretary in 1971. A truly remarkable career, not tainted by any suspicion of his past.
What emerges from the mass of detail in these two books? Above all, that Wald- heim is an opportunist, siding with the authoritarian regime of Schuschnigg before the Anschluss, with the Germans there- after, and with the Second Republic after the war: an opportunist like so many other people, clever and ambitious, obeying orders even if the orders were clearly criminal. As the International Commission appointed by the Austrian government found, 'he sought to let his military past slip into oblivion, and as soon as that was no longer possible, to portray it as harm- less.' And it also declared that 'in the Balkans, despite his low rank, he was far more than just a lowly bureaucrat,' and 'he repeatedly assisted in connection with illegal actions.' It was men like him who made the German war machine run, and for a time very smoothly and efficiently. To resist — as a minority did — would have required great moral courage, and that he did not possess.
Was it worth all the efforts to establish the facts about Waldheim's past? Both books are written rather carelessly, with many purple passages — such as 'a whole nation stands condemned at the bar of history', as if the Austrian nation were responsible for these events. Both also contain many elementary mistakes. Ignaz Seipel neither became the Austrian chan- cellor in 1920 (Rosenzweig & Cohen), nor was he chancellor 'from 1922 to 1929' (Herzstein). His periods of office lasted from 1922 to 1924 and from October 1926 to May 1929. Schuschnigg never was 'a Heimwehr leader' (Herzstein) but was strongly opposed to it. Nor was the Heim- wehr 'the clerical militia' (Rosenzweig & Cohen). Schuschnigg did not 'suppress the Nazi party following the murder of Doll- fuss' (Herzstein), but the suppression car- ried out in 1933 was the main reason for the murder. And so it goes on. Even if books are written in haste, they could be more accurate.
Kurt Waldheim's Wartime Years (Vien- na, 1987) is a documentation assembled by his defenders. They solemnly tell us that the SA cavalry undertook 'solely eques- trian sporting activities', and numerous friends testify that Waldheim is an honour- able man. The funniest piece is an affidavit by Lord Weidenfeld of Chelsea stating that Waldheim's attitude was 'without re- proach' and in 'clear contrast to the con- duct of many opportunists'. Obviously, there were very many of them, and in a way Waldheim's behaviour illustrates that of countless others. Only they did not become secretary of the UN or president of their country.
Professor Carsten's most recent book is The First Austrian Empire, Gower Press, £22.50, 1987.
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