The Spectator

Letters to the editor | 10 December 2005

issue 10 December 2005

Austria and the Jews

In Austria it is illegal publicly to deny the Holocaust (‘Let Irving speak’, 3 December). ‘Words are deeds,’ said Sigmund Freud, and in Austria we are aware of this connection.

‘There is no more anti-Semitic nation in Western Europe than Austria’? Neither the report on ‘Manifestations of anti-Semitism in the EU, 2002–2003’ by the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, nor the recent study by the Anti-Defamation League on ‘Attitudes towards Jews in 12 European countries’ corroborates this claim.

It is true and shameful that many Austrians participated in the Holocaust. Was this guilt ‘extraordinary’? A relatively greater number of Austrian Jews survived than did Jews in several other European countries. Was the Holocaust ignored by the Austrian government after 1945? The vast majority of its members had been prisoners of the Nazis. Very strict anti-Nazi laws were soon passed, former Nazis were excluded from public life for years, and many (about 136,000), though far from enough, were prosecuted. About 30,000 were brought to Austrian courts and 13,600 were sentenced, 43 to death, in the first years after 1945. Restitution, on the basis of Austrian laws, also started shortly after the war, but there again too little was done and often too late. Renewed efforts to compensate victims were made in recent years. Unsatisfactory as this all is, does it amount to Austria pretending that ‘responsibility resided solely in Berlin’?

‘Hitler himself was an Austrian.’ What kind of argument is this? Mozart and Wittgenstein were also Austrians. Stalin was Georgian. Neither Hitler nor Stalin rose to power in their native lands. Hitler left Austria in 1913, at the age of 24, and wrote Mein Kampf in a German prison.

Why did German troops (100,000) and police (16,000) enter Austria on 11 March 1938? Why not on 5 or 23 March? To prevent a plebiscite scheduled for 13 March on whether Austrians wanted to join Germany or not.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY 3 MONTHS FOR $5
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Start your 3-month trial today for just $5 and subscribe to more than one view

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in