Waldheim Apologizes for Austrians’ War Crimes

VIENNA — President Kurt Waldheim of Austria apologized Thursday night for “Nazi crimes committed by Austrians” in World War II.

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the anschluss, or annexation by Germany, Waldheim said that “we must not forget that many of the worst Nazi hangmen were Austrians,” but he said nothing about charges that he shares the guilt.

Waldheim, whose wartime career as an officer in the German army has been widely criticized, declared that “there were Austrians who were victims and others who were perpetrators” during the Nazi period.

He had been asked by other Austrian officials to make no public address at the official ceremony today, so he spoke Thursday night. He has not admitted any personal guilt in connection with his service with a German army unit in the Balkans that has been accused of sending Jews off to concentration camps in Germany and Poland.

Waldheim said in his speech that “an avalanche of suffering was triggered” by the anschluss , that Austria “buried our Jewish fellow citizens.”

“The Holocaust is one of the greatest tragedies of world history,” he went on. “Nothing can explain or excuse those crimes.”

He said the “avalanche of suffering also caught up countless men and women of the resistance, who had to give up their lives for the freedom of Austria.”

He urged his countrymen “to wrestle with the shadows of the past” and added, “The meaning of those days can only be one thing--reconciliation.”

Although he made no reference to charges that he was involved in war crimes, he did say, “I ask you to refrain from blanket charges and from unqualified accusations and to look at Austria as it stands in the late 1980s--secure and open to dialogue, open to the world, ready to assist, self-assured and pointing toward the future.”