However, he was vetoed by China in the second round. Kurt Josef Waldheim was born on December 21 1918 at Tulln, near Vienna. During 196870 he served as Austrian foreign minister. By early 1948, the UN War Crimes Commission listed him as a suspected war criminal subject to trial. Kurt Waldheim was born on Dec. 21, 1918, in St. Andr-Wrdern, a village near Vienna. After six weeks of deadlock, Waldheim and Salim both withdrew from the race. Kurt Waldheim, (born December 21, 1918, Sankt Andr-Wrdern, Austriadied June 14, 2007, Vienna), Austrian diplomat and statesman who served two terms as the fourth secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), from 1972 to 1981. He came back and he and I went to see the Secretary. He served in Paris (194851) and was head of the personnel department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vienna from 1951 to 1955. SPIRO: My job was to track down members of the former German intelligence services in Austria. I remember one guy who had been in the Gestapo, and we had records that showed that he had been an interrogator at an American POW camp. An international commission of historians has found "no proof" that Kurt Waldheim committed war crimes, according to the 200-page report it submitted to Chancellor Franz Vranitzky here Monday . 450. His family was with him when he succumbed to cardiovascular failure. [Waldheim] was banned from the United States for his whole term of office, and because he wasnt allowed into the United States, most other major countries did not invite him for official visits. "@Anti_PC_Culture @Cl3v3rGurl @CissyScum You're where comedic timing (and physical fitness) go to die." 21 June 2007. On the Policy Planning Staff several of the other members and I, who was supposed to know something about Austria, we all had access to all the intelligence that anybody else did. There are 296 days left in the year. They would pull in some 70- or 80-year-old man and tell him he had two choices: He could go on trial and face the likely possibility of spending the rest of his life in jail, or he could renounce his U.S. citizenship and be deported to Austria. He was 88. He was reelected in 1976 despite some opposition from less-developed countries, but a third term was vetoed by the Chinese government in 1981. [34], Waldheim had previously claimed to have received a medical discharge after being wounded in winter 1942. [16], Waldheim denied that he knew war crimes were taking place in Bosnia at the height of the battles between the Nazis and Tito's partisans in 1943. He was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and President of Austria from 1986 to 1992. That is why they preferred him. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Herbert John Spiro, interviewed beginning in April 1994, served from 1945-65 as Chief of Counterintelligence at U.S. Headquarters in Vienna. Many Austrians apparently viewed Waldheim's life as a parable of their own. Despite his humble beginnings, Waldheim was able to pursue university studies in law and diplomacy in Vienna. Reply . Kurt Josef Waldheim (Sankt Andr-Wrdern, 21 dcembre 1918 - Vienne, 14 juin 2007) . In 1986 Waldheim ran once again as the Peoples Party candidate for president of Austria. The Waldheim Waltz: Directed by Ruth Beckermann. Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian-born lawyer, soldier, politician, and envoy who served as the 4 th Secretary-General of the UN and the 9 th President of Austria. As a gymnasium student in Klosterneuburg, he excelled at languages and was a competent violinist in the school orchestra, also enjoying swimming, boating and tennis. It was odd. With Howard Stern, Dominic Barbara, Richard Belzer, Downtown Julie Brown. When I met Kurt Waldheim in Vienna in 1994, the Balkans were doubly at issue, a generation apart. He argued that the Austrian Prime Minister, a Social Democrat, was about to visit the U.S. and it would be a great embarrassment to him if we banned Waldheim. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, What time is it on the moon? A fireball can never be helpful in this situation. Kurt Waldheim was an Austrian diplomat and statesman who served two terms as the fourth secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), from 1972 to 1981. However, Salim was vetoed by the United States, while Waldheim was vetoed by China. Reply. 5), page 188. The rest of the delegation waited a day to catch a direct flight to Washington. 100 comments. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-Waldheim, British Broadcasting Corporation - Kurt Waldheim, United Nations - Biography of Kurt Waldheim, Kurt Waldheim - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). June 15, 2007. So even if they were Romanians or Yugoslavs, if they emigrated to the U.S. from Austria they could be deported back to Austria. Kurt's father, Walter, migrated to Austria where Christian-Social Party (CSP) activism landed him the plum-gig of school inspector. During his campaign for the presidency in 1985, what became known internationally as the "Waldheim affair" began. It took hundreds of thousands of ordinary men - well-meaning but ambitious men like Kurt Waldheim - to make the Third Reich possible. [25] Amidst international protest, "the UN spokesman said [in his daily press conference] it was not the secretary-general's practice to comment on telegrams sent him by heads of government. Well, there was never really any good evidence that tied Waldheim directly to atrocities. But theyve hit a snag, Student debt is a crisis: Activists rally outside Supreme Court for loan forgiveness, Tensions rise in Nigeria as opposition demands new vote. After a distinguished diplomatic career, culminating in 10 years as UN Secretary General, Dr Kurt Waldheim found himself embroiled in bitter controversy over his war record more than 40 years after the end of the World War II. "Kurt Waldheim did not, in fact, order, incite or personally commit what is commonly called a war crime," Herzstein wrote. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Office of Special Investigations, United States Department of Justice Criminal Division internal investigative report: Eli M. Rosenbaum, "The Kurt Waldheim Affair," in Ronald S. Lauder (Foreword) and Menachem Z. Rosensaft (Editor). Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, issued a message 'voicing sadness'. Visitor's guide to United Nations in the time of Kurt Waldheim 1973. by Kurt Waldheim | Jan 1, 1973. The "Waldheim Affair" is the term conventionally applied to the controversy surrounding the disclosure of the previously unknown past of Kurt Waldheim, former secretary general of the United Nations, which arose during his campaign for the Austrian presidency in 1986.The affair not only focused international attention on Waldheim personally, but also raised broader questions . When I was in Vienna, Waldheim was Political Director of the Foreign Ministry. We have many differences with him, but that isn't one of them. From his youth, Waldheim was distinguished by his unusual height of 1.92m (6ft 4in). The controversy surrounding my person in and outside Austria often hurt me, he said. The same year, he was made an honorary member of K.H.V. I was happy to see him turned him down and he will never get to see the shores of the United States again. Waldheim resoundingly defeated Echeverra in the first round of voting. [20] According to Finnish diplomat Risto Hyvrinen, Waldheim's former Nazi connections were already known to the Finnish officials who supported Max Jakobson for Secretary-General in the election. Kurt Waldheim, the erudite diplomat who served as secretary-general of the United Nations and Austria's president but left the world stage a pariah after his Nazi past was . [7] Following the annexation, Waldheim's father was briefly arrested by the Gestapo and dismissed from his post, while Waldheim's scholarship was cancelled. His candidacy became controversial, however, with the dissemination of wartime and postwar documents that pointed to his having been an interpreter and intelligence officer for a German army unit that engaged in brutal reprisals against Yugoslav Partisans and civilians and deported most of the Jewish population of Salonika (Thessalonki), Greece, to Nazi death camps in 1943. Before the decision, the Austrians would come to Washington and ask us not to do it. At one point, years later, Waldheim told an interviewer that he had joined merely to shield his family, a tactic adopted by many living under Nazi occupation. Waldheim lied about his wartime service in the Balkans, maintaining that his military career ended in 1942 after he was wounded in a battle on the Russian front. There was no comment or statement from the governors office Thursday on the death of Waldheim.). "We lived in daily apprehension.". Sound, Fury, Brilliance & Booze: Faulkner in Post-War Japan, Protecting Greenland: The American Consulate at Godthab, 1940-42, Raymond Hare: Our Man in Cairo during WWII. - Date based on span of years Waldheim served as Secretary General of the United Nations. Lauder was very close to the Jewish organizations in the U.S. and Austria but he was concerned about the damage a ban on Waldheim would do to U.S.-Austrian relations. Omissions? BODDE: Kurt Waldheim was President of Austria. [52:55, April] Kurt Waldheim Jr. and "Guess Who's The Jew," Washington DC pro-choice rally, Reporter Jim Jensen parody. What the U.N. needs is a quiet approach, he said. [41] Stolen Jewish art remained public property a generation after the Waldheim affair. A secretary-general who is too much of an activist wont last longer than a year.. In the meantime, Congress passed a law, the Holtzman Act, named after a Congresswoman who introduced it. Probably. The German occupation in the Balkans was particularly brutal. He said that he had known about some of the things that had happened, and had been horrified, but could not see what else he could have done. But more than four decades later, his assertions were disputed by witnesses, photographs, medals and commendations given to Waldheim, and by his own signature on documents linked to massacres and deportations. I had either to continue to serve or be executed. In the telegram, Amin "applauded the massacre of the Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich and said Germany was the most appropriate locale for this because it was where Hitler burned more than six million Jews". So decisions were made then in the light of the necessities at the time and were perfectly legitimate, I think. Many were displaced persons at the end of the war and ended up in Austria. He died of heart failure, the state broadcaster ORF reported.Although it was never proved that Waldheim himself committed atrocities . The ex-concentration guard would then show up on the Austrians doorstep. Then Ryan or someone from OSI would leak to The New York Times that they had nabbed another Nazi and deported him to Austria. Kurt Waldheim synonyms, Kurt Waldheim pronunciation, Kurt Waldheim translation, English dictionary definition of Kurt Waldheim. New U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew to Vienna and met with Waldheim in February; Bans aides hastened to characterize the visit as private and personal.. Waldheim je bil generalni sekretar OZN (1972-1981) in predsednik Avstrije (1986-1992). Austria refused to pay compensation to victims of Nazism, and from 1970 onwards refused to investigate Austrian citizens who were senior Nazis. [53] In a letter to the editor published in Foreign Affairs magazine two years after Rosenbaum's book was released, former Finnish ambassador to the U.N. Max Jakobson (one of the candidates whom the USSR had vetoed) wrote, "The Soviets knew everything about Waldheim. Kurt Josef Waldheim (German: [kt valtham] (listen); 21 December 1918 14 June 2007) was an Austrian politician and diplomat. Some Germans had stayed in Austria partly because they thought that the Occupation, which was not called Occupation, would be less rigorous and less de-Nazifying than it was in Germany. 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