Kurt Waldheim, a commission of enquiry part 1 of 9

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• published: 21 Jul 2011
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SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE DOCUMENTARIES SEE MY HISTORY SITE ON FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alan-Heaths-History-Page/173472422695696 twitter : @ceepackaging These nine films are part of a much larger programme that was aired in 1988 which looks into allegations that the recently elected president of Austria Kurt Waldheim was a Nazi war criminal. Waldheim had previously been the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981. I do not possess any more of this programme which I 'rediscovered' in 2008 on a VHS cassette used some 20 years earlier. Waldheim had unsuccessfully sought election as President of Austria in 1971, but his second attempt on 8 June 1986 proved successful. During his campaign for the presidency in 1985, the events started that marked the beginning of what became known internationally as the "Waldheim Affair". Before the presidential elections, Alfred Worm revealed in the Austrian weekly news magazine Profil that there had been several omissions about Waldheim's life between 1938 and 1945 in his recently-published autobiography. A short time later, the World Jewish Congress alleged that Waldheim had lied about his service as an officer in the mounted corps of the SA, and his time as an ordnance officer for Army Group E in Saloniki, Greece, from 1942 to 1943 based in files from the United Nations War Crimes Commission. Waldheim called the allegations "pure lies and malicious acts". Nevertheless he admitted that he had known about German reprisals against partisans: "Yes, I knew. I was horrified. But what could I do? I had either to continue to serve or be executed." He said that he had never fired a shot or even seen a partisan. His former immediate superior at the time stated that Waldheim had "remained confined to a desk". Part of the reason for the controversy was Austria's refusal to address its national role in the Holocaust - which was the home not only of Adolf Hitler but also many other leading Nazis. Austria refused to pay compensation to Nazi victims and from 1970 onwards refused to investigate Austrian citizens who were senior Nazis. Because the revelations leading to the Waldheim affair came shortly before the presidential election there has been speculation about the background of the affair. Declassified CIA documents show that the CIA had been aware of his war time past since 1945. Some sources report information about Waldheim's wartime past was also previously published by a right wing Austrian newspaper during the 1971 presidential election campaign - including the claim of an SS membership. My channel on you tube : http://www.youtube.com/alanheath is one of the most prolific from Poland. I have produced around 1,600 original films, most in English but also in Polish, French, Italian, Spanish and German. My big interest in life is travel and history but I have also placed films on other subjects Please feel free to ask questions in the public area or to comment on things you disagree with. Sometimes there are mistakes because I speak without preparation. If I see the mistakes myself, I make this clear in the text. Please also leave a star rating! There are a number of films here on the packaging industry. This is because I am the publisher of Central and Eastern European Packaging -- http://www.ceepackaging.com - the international platform for the packaging industry in this region focusing on the latest innovations, trends, design, branding, legislation and environmental issues with in-depth profiles of major industry achievers. Most people may think packaging pretty boring but it possibly effects your life more than you really imagine! Central and Eastern European Packaging examines the packaging industry throughout this region, but in particular in the largest regional economies which are Russia, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Austria. That is not to say that the other countries are forgotten, they are not, but obviously there is less going on. However the fact that there are so many travel related films here is not from holidays but from business trips attending trade fairs around the region. Every packaging trade fair is a new excuse to make another film!