Jewish leaders here are voicing considerable anxiety over the return yesterday of Major Waldemar Pabst, former leader of the Heimwehr, whose exile on a charge of high treason some months ago by ex-Chancellor Schober was recently cancelled by Prince Ernst von Starhemberg, Heimwehr leader and minister of the interior in the Vaugoin cabinet.
When he was expelled last June, Austrian Jewry breathed a sigh of relief because it was felt that he was the principal cause of the anti-Semitic policy of the Heimwehr, of which he is the founder. Pabst is an intimate friend of Adolf Hitler with whom he was associated in the abortive Munich putsch.
Although Major Pabst’s youth was spent in a Jewish home in Berlin he has been a leader of the anti-Semitic faction of the Heimwehr. His return to Austria, which was accompanied by a triumphal march from the time he crossed the border from his Italian refuge, coupled with the untrammeled anti-Semitic agitation of the Heimwehr Minister of Justice, Franz Hueber, is causing serious concern to Austrian Jewry.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.