Kurt Waldheim’s handwritten intelligence notations are contained in a secret wartime German document that pinpoints the vulnerability of anti-Nazi forces in Greece. It is the first Nazi intelligence document located bearing Waldheim’s own handwritten jottings and directly contradicts his repeated assertions that he never was a German intelligence officer.
The document, found by World Jewish Congress researchers at the U.S. National Archives, shows Waldheim — in handwritten entries — modifying a secret intelligence report so as to challenge its assessment of the strength of the Greek anti-Nazi resistance. Waldheim asserted, in this document for his army’s command, that the Greeks were significantly weaker than the intelligence report indicated.
Dated January 18, 1944, the document is marked “Secret Command Business” with instructions it could be coded and sent to the headquarters of the High Command of the German Army in the Balkans. At High Command headquarters, Waldheim received the document and so indicated by initialing it.
At headquarters, Waldheim proceeded to alter the intelligence document by adding his observations and by substantively changing its assessment of the strength of the resistance forces facing the German military in Greece.
Where the document stated that the Greek resistance comprised 40,000 “fighters,” Waldheim crossed out the word and replaced it with “men.” In supplementary remarks written at the bottom of the page — which he initialed — he stresses that Greek resistance was less formidable than the intelligence report was indicating.
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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.
