A growing number of representatives for American Jewish organizations–secular, religious and fraternal–issued statements this week denouncing the election of Kurt Waldheim, former United Nations Secretary General to be President of Austria.
Waldheim’s campaign for the largely ceremonial position had been marked by a series of charges by Jewish organizations, led by the World Jewish Congress, charging that Waldheim had lied about his war-time record and could be considered at least an accessory in Nazi war crimes.
Waldheim reluctantly admitted he had falsified his war-time record but rejected all Nazi war crime involvement, turning the tables on his critics by accusing them of mixing in Austria’s internal affairs. He won an easy victory in a runoff election Sunday.
URGE WALDHEIM BE BARRED FROM U.S.
Kenneth Bialkin chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said that Attorney General Edwin Meese should continue his investigation of the Nazi record of Waldheim and that Waldheim should be placed on the so called “watch list” barring him from the U.S.
“At least the American government would be officially on record concerning Mr. Waldheim’s Nazi past, and any official honors being considered for him would be evaluated in that light,” said Bialkin.
Theodore Ellenoff, president of the American Jewish Committee, declared that the fact “that a majority of the Austrian electorate could choose to ignore both Dr. Waldheim’s war-time involvement in Nazi operations in the Balkans and his subsequent unbridled deceit about this period represents a truly sad day in Austrian history.”
Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the association of American Reform synagogues, commented that “the country that gave us Hitler has now chosen one of his earliest followers as its President.”
By doing so, Schindler said, the Austrian people gave the lie to their claim they were the first victims of Nazi aggression. “They were not,” he said. “The Anschluss was their enthusiastic choice, making them willing partners in the evil of Nazism.”
Alleck Resnick president of the Zionist Organization of America said, “The choice of Kurt Waldheim by the majority of the Austrian people appears to confirm their unrepentant acceptance of Nazism and also conveys a message that anti-Semitism is still an important political factor in that land.”
Henry Siegman, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, declared that by electing as their President “a man with a Nazi past,” the people of Austria “knowingly and deliberately associated themselves with that past,” and, by doing so, “by their own actions and their own choice, Austrians have covered themselves with shame.”
Burton Levinson, chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, called on the United States and the rest of the world to ban the entrance of Waldheim to their territories. He spoke at a news conference in Jerusalem where the ADL is holding its annual conference.
Menachem Rosensaft of New York, founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, declared that Waldheim won in Austria “in part because of the United States Justice Department’s refusal to place him on the ‘watch list.’ As a result, Waldheim was able to tell the Austrian people that his only accusers were Jews.”
‘A DELIBERATE LIAR’
Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, asserted that Waldheim was “a deliberate liar,” accused by the Yugoslav government of “murder.” He said Waldheim “could have, but did not, fly to Yugoslavia to confront that government before the world, demanding the release of his file to clear his name.”
Barnett Zumoff, president of the Workmen’s Circle, accused Waldheim of having “played the Soviet-Arab bloc game” against Israel when Waldheim was UN Secretary General. Zumoff cited “the Soviet anti-Israel diatribe in defense of Waldheim” as evidence.
Herb Magidson, president of the Jewish Labor Committee, said that organization found “abhorrent” Waldheim’s victory in the face of well-documented charges that he lied about his Nazi past.
Sidney Kwestel, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, said Waldheim’s election was “a sad testimonial to the fact that there are many in this world who still wish to forget the Holocaust.” Kwestel said that during the past three months during which charges were being made against Waldheim, “almost no non-Jewish groups have spoken out on Waldheim.”
Some 400 delegates at the 77th annual convention of B’nai Zion adopted last Sunday a resolution calling for an economic boycott of Austria in anticipation of the announcement of Waldheim’s victory.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
