The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith revealed today that unless another candidate is nominated by April 16, the next president of Rotary International will be a former Nazi storm-trooper.
According to Lawrence Peirez, chairman of the ADL’s civil rights committee. Austrian industrialist Wolfgang Wick had withdrawn his name for nomination “for personal reasons” following world-wide protests, including the ADL, because of his Nazi background. The Rotary nominating committee, however, renominated Wick at a special meeting Feb. 16.
Peirez said that Wick joined the Nazi Party in Austria in 1933, was a key figure for Nazi industry in Austria during World War II, and had served in Hitler’s notorious SS. The ADL, which confirmed its information on Wick with Simon Wiesenthal, head of the Jewish Documentation Center for Nazi War Crimes in Vienna, discussed the matter with the Secretary General of Rotary International in Evanston, III.
NO PROVISIONS FOR INVESTIGATING PEOPLE
“We were told,” Peirez said, “that the organization has no provisions for investigation people, but was aware of the allegations against Wick through protests from Dutch Rotarians.”
The Secretary General explained the Rotary procedure–notice of the nomination is sent to the more than 16,000 clubs around the world with each having an opportunity to present its own nominee. If no other candidate is put forward, Wick will be declared president. But if there are other candidates for the post, an election will be held at the Rotary convention coming up this summer in New Orleans.
“We certainly hope there will be other candidates,” Peirez said, adding: “It is difficult to understand the nomination of such a person, but it would be even more difficult to understand if Wolfgang Wick does indeed become president of this highly respected organization.”
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