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Waldheim, 1971 (credit: UPI)

(born Dec. 21, 1918, Sankt Andrä-Wördern, Austria — died June 14, 2007, Vienna) Fourth secretary-
general of the United Nations (1972 – 81). After military service in the German army before and during
World War II, he entered the Austrian foreign service and served successively as ambassador to Canada
(1958 – 60) and the UN (1964 – 68, 1970 – 71) and as foreign minister (1968 – 70). Elected to succeed U
Thant as UN secretary-general, he served two terms, during which he oversaw disaster relief in
Bangladesh, Nicaragua, and Guatemala and peacekeeping missions in Cyprus, the Middle East, Angola,
and Guinea. Denied a third term, he returned to Austria and ran for president in 1986. His candidacy
became controversial when the dissemination of wartime and postwar documents pointed to his having
been part of a German army unit that had deported most of the Jewish population of the Greek town of
Salonika to Nazi death camps in 1943. Elected nonetheless, he was diplomatically isolated throughout
his term (1986 – 92).

For more information on Kurt Waldheim, visit Britannica.com.

Oxford Dictionary of Political Biography:

Kurt Waldheim
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(b. 21 Dec. 1918) Austrian; President 1986 – 92, Secretary-General of the UN 1972 – 82 Kurt Waldheim
has the doubtful honour of being the only Austrian President, or indeed politician, since 1945, who is
remembered outside Austria. He is remembered far more for his wartime service than for his service as
UN Secretary-General.

Born in 1918 into a middle-class Catholic family in Lower Austria, Waldheim grew up in a country torn by
political divisions and trying to come to terms with its decline from being a great empire in 1914 to being
a small state in 1918. Waldheim studied law in Vienna with the intention of entering the diplomatic
service, but the Nazi takeover of Austria in 1938 prevented him realizing this ambition. The war came
and he was called up, serving in the German army as a lieutenant. After recovering from wounds
sustained on the eastern front he was sent to occupied Greece and later Yugoslavia. He was an
intelligence officer on the staff of General Alexander Löhr who, on Hitler's birthday in 1945, presented
his fellow Austrian Waldheim with a War Merit Cross, First Class, with Swords. Löhr was executed after
the war as a war criminal. In his memoirs Waldheim wrote very little about his wartime activities.

As Austria was treated as a victim of Nazi Germany rather than a willing ally it was able to re-establish its
own government and diplomatic service in 1945. Waldheim was accepted for the diplomatic service and
rose rapidly, serving in Paris, Ottawa, at the UN, and as Minister for Foreign Affairs 1968 – 70. He stood
unsuccessfully as the (Conservative) People's Party candidate for the Austrian presidency in 1971. As a
seasoned diplomat from a small, neutral country he was elected Secretary-General of the UN in 1972,
serving until 1982. On the second ballot, he was elected President of Austria in 1986, being the first non-
Socialist since 1945 to hold this office.

It was during his election campaign that allegations were made about Waldheim's wartime role. He was
accused of being involved in atrocities against civilians including the deportation of Jews to the death
camps. Although an international commission of inquiry set up by the Socialist government found in his
favour, it believed he had been unwise not to say more about his time in the German army. Simon
Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi hunter, came to the same conclusion. Nevertheless, Waldheim's detractors
were partly successful. He was largely ostracized during his presidency and decided not to seek a second
term.
Gale Encyclopedia of Biography:

Kurt Waldheim

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Kurt Waldheim (born 1918) was an Austrian diplomat and politician who served as secretary general of
the United Nations from 1972 to 1982. In 1986 he was elected president of Austria despite a
controversy over his role as a Nazi intelligence officer in World War II.

Kurt Waldheim was born in St. Andrä-Wördern, a village near Vienna, Austria, on December 21, 1918.
His father was a Roman Catholic school inspector and an active Christian Socialist. Waldheim's youth
was spent in a country searching for identity amid domestic turmoil. During his years of schooling at the
Vienna Consular Academy he was nonpartisan politically.

War Record

After graduation in 1936 Waldheim entered the University of Vienna and studied law and diplomacy. In
1938, three weeks after Adolph Hitler annexed Austria, Waldheim joined the Nazi student union, and
later that year he joined the mounted unit of the Nazis' notorious paramilitary force, the Sturm-
Abteilung (S.A.) or "brown-shirts." It was a membership that Waldheim later concealed. When war
broke out, he was drafted into the army, sent to the Eastern front, wounded in the spring of 1941, and
received a medical discharge. According to two autobiographies, The Challenge of Peace (1980) and In
the Eye of the Storm (1986), he then quit active service, returned to Vienna, completed his doctorate in
law in 1944, and married his wife Cissy before the end of the war.

But documents uncovered in the mid-1980s showed that Waldheim remained active in the Germany
army until 1945, assigned as an intelligence officer on the staff of General Alexander Löhr, an Austrian
who was executed in 1947 as a war criminal. Löhr's forces committed atrocities against Yugoslav
resistance fighters and deported 40,000 Greek Jews to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Waldheim
told reporters in 1986 that he was only an interpreter and clerk on Löhr's staff and had no part in war
crimes, but intelligence reports and eyewitnesses indicated he was aware of the atrocities. After the
war, the Allied war crimes commission ruled that Waldheim should be tried as a war criminal, but he
was among 40,000 suspects whose files were sealed and given to the United Nations and who were
never tried.

Postwar Political Rise

After the war, Austria was considered a victim of a Nazi invasion, and Austrians' complicity in Nazi war
crimes was generally overlooked. Talented and ambitious, Waldheim advanced rapidly in politics. Late in
1945, he took a job in the Foreign Ministry and became involved in negotiations for an end to the Allied
occupation. He became secretary to the Austrian foreign minister and rose quickly through the
diplomatic ranks, serving for three years in Paris. When Austria regained its sovereignty in 1955,
Waldheim was its first delegate to the United Nations. He was Austria's ambassador to Canada (1956-
1960), then served four years in high posts in Austria's ministry for foreign affairs (1960-1964), and
returned to the United Nations as Austria's representative (1964-1968), where he was chairman of the
Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (1965-1968).

In 1968, Waldheim became Austria's foreign minister. He lost his job in a change of government and
returned to the United Nations a third time as Austria's ambassador in 1970. In 1971, he made an
unsuccessful bid to become Austrian president as the candidate of the Independent party. Back at the
UN, he became chairman of the safeguards committee of the Atomic Energy Agency.

United Nations Head

In 1972, Waldheim took over from U Thant of Burma as secretary general of the United Nations. His
polished diplomacy and studied neutrality appealed to both the Soviet Union and the United States.
During his eight years as UN leader, he promoted the ideals of world peace, justice, and human rights.
With many new Third World nations gaining admission to the UN, Waldheim sought to lead by
consensus. He put the United Nations back on a sound financial footing by reducing operating costs and
getting dues collected. He led peacekeeping efforts in Cyprus, the Middle East and Vietnam. Waldheim
was praised for initiating talks that ended the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, but later drew the wrath of the
American Jewish community for condemning Israel's 1976 raid to rescue hostages on a hijacked plane in
Uganda. In his second term, Waldheim faced several crises which the United Nations had little power to
resolve, including Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon, the war in Afghanistan, the conflict between
Iraq and Iran, and the Iranian hostage crisis.
In 1981, Waldheim sought an unprecedented third term, but lost to Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru
despite the backing of the United States and the Soviet Union. He then became special Austrian envoy
to international congresses and a visiting professor of diplomacy at Georgetown University in
Washington, DC (1982-1984).

Controversial President

In 1986, Waldheim campaigned for president of Austria as the candidate of the conservative People's
party, seeking to end 16 years of Socialist rule. During the campaign, the World Jewish Congress and an
Austrian news magazine produced documents revealing Waldheim's Nazi past. Waldheim insisted he
had joined the Nazi groups only because he wanted to protect his family. Many Austrian voters accepted
his explanation that he was the victim of an international smear campaign, and he was elected president
to a six-year term amid an angry eruption of anti-semitism. U.S. Senator Daniel Moynihan called
Waldheim's victory "a symbolic amnesty for the Holocaust."

Israel boycotted his inauguration and recalled its ambassador to Austria. The United States banned
Waldheim as a war criminal. On February 8, 1988, a six-man international commission of prestigious
historians found that Waldheim was aware of Nazi atrocities and did nothing to stop them, though he
did not personally participate in war crimes. Waldheim resisted calls for his resignation and continued to
insist he was innocent. Shunned by almost every world leader, he served out his term but did not run
again in 1992. Waldheim's efforts to clear his name resulted in another autobiography, The Answer,
published in 1996, in which he wrote of his wartime activities: "I did what was necessary to survive the
day, the system, the war - no more, no less."

Further Reading

Much autobiographical material is included in Kurt Waldheim, The Challenge of Peace (1980), while his
The Austrian Example (1973) cites the neutral role of his own country as a blueprint for world stability
and international exchange. Building the Future Order (1981) contains a synthesis of Waldheim's key
reports and speeches between 1972 and 1980. In 1986 he published In the Eye of the Storm: A Memoir
and in 1996 he answered critics of his Nazi war record with The Answer. A critical look at Waldheim is
contained in "Waldheim and History: Austria Recalls the Anschluss," The Nation (March 19, 1988) and in
"Waldheim: the Historians' Verdict," The Economist (March 12, 1988).
Columbia Encyclopedia:

Kurt Waldheim

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Waldheim, Kurt (kʊrt vält'hīm), 1918-2007, Austrian diplomat, secretary-general of the United Nations
(1972-81) and president of Austria (1986-92). He entered diplomatic service after World War II, serving
in France and Canada. When Austria entered the United Nations in 1958, Waldheim was a member of its
delegation. Austria's permanent representative to the United Nations (1964-68), he later served (1968-
70) as Austria's foreign minister and lost (1971) an election for the Austrian presidency.

Elected to a five-year term as UN secretary-general in Dec., 1971, Waldheim attempted, with little
success, to end the Iran-Iraq war and the China-Vietnam war and to gain the release of American
hostages in Iran. He was reelected in 1976 despite Third World opposition, but was blocked from a third
term by a Chinese veto in 1981. He was succeeded as secretary-general by Javier Pérez de Cuéllar.

In 1986 he was elected president of Austria, despite the scandal caused by the revelation that he had
been an officer in a German army unit that committed atrocities in Yugoslavia during World War II. He
consistently denied any knowledge of the atrocities, and an international investigation cleared him of
complicity. Nonetheless, many felt he must have known more than he revealed, and the allegations
overshadowed his diplomatic and political legacy. His tenure as president was marked by international
isolation, and he did not run in 1992.

Bibliography

See his memoir (1986) and autobiography (1999).

Encyclopedia of the Holocaust:

Kurt Waldheim
Top

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(b. 1918), Austrian soldier who served in the German Wehrmacht. Despite the fact that Waldheim
appeared on the United Nations' list of war criminals, he was elected United Nations secretary-general
in 1971 and president of Austria in 1986.

Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Kurt Waldheim

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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > WikipediaKurt Waldheim

9th President of Austria

In office

8 July 1986 – 8 July 1992

Chancellor Franz Vranitzky

Preceded by Rudolf Kirchschläger

Succeeded by Thomas Klestil

4th Secretary-General of the United Nations

In office

1 January 1972 – 31 December 1981

Preceded by U Thant

Succeeded by Javier Pérez de Cuéllar

Born 21 December 1918

Sankt Andrä-Wördern near Vienna, German Austria

Died 14 June 2007 (aged 88)

Vienna, Austria

Nationality Austrian

Political party Austrian People's Party

Spouse(s) Elisabeth Waldheim

(1944-2007)

Children 3

Alma mater Vienna Consular Academy

Profession lawyer, diplomat

ReligionRoman Catholicism

Signature

United Nations portal

Kurt Josef Waldheim (German pronunciation: [ˈkʊɐ̯t ˈvaldhaɪm]; 21 December 1918 – 14 June 2007) was
an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations
from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992. While running for President
in Austria in 1985, his service as an intelligence officer in the Wehrmacht during World War II raised
international controversy.Contents

1 Early life

2 Military service in World War II

2.1 Overview

2.2 Service in Yugoslavia and Greece

2.3 Surrender

3 Diplomatic career

3.1 United Nations Secretary-General

4 Presidency of Austria
4.1 Election and Waldheim Affair

4.2 The International Committee of historians and allegations of Nazi War Crimes

4.3 Term of presidency 1986–1992

5 Later years and death

6 Media references

7 Further reading

8 References

9 External links

Early life

Waldheim was born in Sankt Andrä-Wördern, a village near Vienna, on 21 December 1918.[1] His father
was a Roman Catholic school inspector of Czech origin named Watzlawick[2] (original Czech spelling
Václavík) who changed his name that year as the Habsburg monarchy collapsed. Waldheim served in the
Austrian Army (1936–37) and attended the Vienna Consular Academy, where he graduated in 1939.
Waldheim's father was active in the Christian Social Party. Waldheim himself was politically unaffiliated
during these years at the Academy. Shortly after the German annexation of Austria in 1938, a 20-year
old Waldheim applied for membership in the National Socialist German Students' League (NSDStB), a
division of the Nazi Party.[3] Shortly thereafter he became a registered member of the mounted corps of
the SA.

On August 19, 1944 he married Elisabeth Ritschel in Vienna; their first daughter Lieselotte was born the
following year. Son Gerhard and daughter Christa followed.

Military service in World War II

Overview

In early 1941 Waldheim was drafted into the Wehrmacht and sent to the Eastern Front where he served
as a squad leader. In December 1941 he was wounded but later returned to service. His further service
in the Wehrmacht from 1942 to 1945 was subject of the international dispute in 1985 and 1986. In 1985,
in his autobiography, he stated that he was discharged from further service at the front and for the rest
of the war years finished his law degree at the University of Vienna in addition to marrying in 1944.[4]
Documents and witnesses which have since come to light reveal that Waldheim’s military service
continued until 1945, and that he rose to the rank of Oberleutnant, and confirmed that he married in
1944 and graduated with a law degree from the University of Vienna in 1945.

Service in Yugoslavia and Greece

His functions within the staff of German Army Group E from 1942 until 1945, as determined by the
International Commission of Historians,[5] were:

interpreter and liaison officer with the 5th Alpine Division (Italy) in April/May 1942, then,

O2 officer (communications) with Kampfgruppe West Bosnia June/August 1942,

interpreter with the liaison staff attached to the Italian 9th Army in Tirana in early summer 1942,

O1 officer in the German liaison staff with the Italian 11th Army and in the staff of the Army Group
South in Greece in July/October 1943 and

O3 officer on the staff of Army Group E in Arksali, Kosovska Mitrovica and Sarajevo from October 1943
to January/February 1945.

By 1943 he was serving in the capacity of an ordnance officer in Army Group E which was headed by
General Alexander Löhr.[6] In 1986, Waldheim said that he had served only as an interpreter and a clerk
and had no knowledge either of reprisals against civilians locally or of massacres in neighboring
provinces of Yugoslavia. 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.[4]

Much historical interest has centered on Waldheim's role in Operation Kozara in 1942.[7] According to
one post-war investigator, prisoners were routinely shot within only a few hundred yards of Waldheim's
office,[8] and just 35 km away at the Jasenovac concentration camp. Waldheim later stated "that he did
not know about the murder of civilians there."[8]

Waldheim's name appears on the Wehrmacht's "honor list" of those responsible for the militarily
successful operation. The Independent State of Croatia awarded Waldheim the Medal of the Crown of
King Zvonimir in silver with an oak branches cluster.[9] Later, during the lobbying for his election as U.N.
Secretary General, Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito awarded Waldheim the Order of the Grand Cross of
Yugoslavia.[citation needed]
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.[10] According to Eli Rosenbaum, in 1944, Waldheim
reviewed and approved a packet of anti-Semitic propaganda leaflets to be dropped behind Soviet lines,
one of which ended, "enough of the Jewish war, kill the Jews, come over."[11]

Surrender

In 1945, Waldheim surrendered to British forces in Carinthia, at which point he said he had fled his
command post within Army Group E, where he was serving with General Löhr, who was seeking a
special deal with the British.

Diplomatic career

Waldheim joined the Austrian diplomatic service in 1945, after finishing his studies in law at the
University of Vienna. He served as First Secretary of the Legation in Paris from 1948, and in the Ministry
for Foreign Affairs in Vienna from 1951 to 1956. In 1956 he was made Ambassador to Canada, returning
to the Ministry in 1960, after which he became the Permanent Representative of Austria to the United
Nations in 1964. For two years beginning in 1968, he was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs in
Austria serving for the Austrian People's Party, before going back as Permanent Representative to the
U.N. in 1970. Shortly afterwards, he ran and was defeated in the 1971 Austrian presidential elections.

United Nations Secretary-General

After being defeated in his home country's presidential election, he was elected to succeed U Thant as
United Nations Secretary-General the same year. As Secretary-General, Waldheim opened and
addressed a number of major international conferences convened under United Nations auspices. These
included the third session of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (Santiago, April 1972), the
U.N. Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, June 1972), the third UN Conference on the
Law of the Sea (Caracas, June 1974), the World Population Conference (Bucharest, August 1974) and the
World Food Conference (Rome, November 1974). However, his diplomatic efforts particularly in the
Middle East were overshadowed by the diplomacy of then US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger.[12]

On September 11, 1972, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin sent a telegram to Waldheim, copies of which went
to Yasser Arafat and Golda Meir. 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."[13] Amin also called "to expel Israel from the United Nations
and to send all the Israelis to Britain, which bore the guilt for creating the Jewish state."[14] Among
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. He added that the
secretary-general condemned any form of racial discrimination and genocide."[14]

Waldheim was re-elected in 1976 despite some opposition. Waldheim and then-U.S. President Jimmy
Carter both prepared written statements for inclusion on the Voyager Golden Records, now in deep
space.[15] He was the first Secretary-General to visit North Korea, in 1979.[16] In 1980 Waldheim flew
to Iran in an attempt to negotiate the release of the American hostages held in Tehran, but Ayatollah
Khomeini refused to see him.[12] While in Tehran, it was announced that an attempt on Waldheim's life
had been foiled. Near the end of his tenure as Secretary-General, Waldheim and Paul McCartney also
organized a series of concerts for the People of Kampuchea to help Cambodia recover from the damage
done by Pol Pot.[17] The People's Republic of China vetoed Waldheim's candidature for a third term,
and he was succeeded by Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru.

Presidency of Austria

Election and Waldheim Affair

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 in Saloniki,
Greece, from 1942 to 1943.[18] Waldheim called the allegations "pure lies and malicious acts".[19]
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."[19] He said that he
had never fired a shot or even seen a partisan.[19] His former immediate superior at the time stated
that Waldheim had "remained confined to a desk".[19] Former Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky
denounced the actions of the World Jewish Congress as an "extraordinary infamy"[19] adding that
Austrians wouldn't "allow the Jews abroad to ... tell us who should be our President."

Part of the reason for the controversy was Austria's refusal to address its national role in the Holocaust
(many including Adolf Hitler were Austrians and Austria became part of the Third Reich). Austria refused
to pay compensation to Nazi victims and from 1970 onwards refused to investigate Austrian citizens
who were senior Nazis.[20] Stolen Jewish art remained public property until well after the Waldheim
affair.[21]
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.[22]
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 - but the matter was supposedly regarded as unimportant or even advantageous for the
candidate at that time.[23]

It has been asserted that his war time past and the discrepancies in his biography must have been well
known to both superpowers before he was elected UN secretary and there were rumors that the KGB
had blackmailed him during his UN time.[24]

In 1994, former Mossad officer Victor Ostrovsky claimed in his book The Other Side of Deception that
Mossad doctored the file of the then UN Secretary General to implicate him in Nazi crimes. These
allegedly false documents were subsequently "discovered" by Benjamin Netanyahu in the UN file, and
triggered the "Waldheim Affair". Ostrovsky says it was motivated by Waldheim's criticism of Israeli
action in Lebanon.[25] Controversy surrounds Ostrovsky and his writings and some of his claims are
disputed. Many of them have not been verified from other sources, and critics such as Benny Morris and
author David Wise have charged that the book is essentially a novel.[26][27]

The International Committee of historians and allegations of Nazi War Crimes

In view of the ongoing international controversy, the Austrian government decided to appoint an
international committee of historians to examine Waldheim's life between 1938 and 1945. Their report
found no evidence of any personal involvement in those crimes. Although Waldheim had stated that he
was unaware of any crimes taking place, the historians cited evidence that Waldheim must have known
about war crimes.[28]

In an account of the controversy, Simon Wiesenthal stated that Waldheim was stationed 5 miles from
Salonika while, over the course of several weeks, the Jewish community which formed one third of the
population there, was sent to Auschwitz. Waldheim denied any knowledge of this. Wiesenthal states:
I could only reply what the committee of historians likewise made clear in its report: "I cannot believe
you."[29]

Wiesenthal stated the committee found no evidence that Waldheim took part in any war crimes, but
was guilty of lying about his military record.[30] The International Committee in February 1988
concluded, with regard to Waldheim's ability to do something about the crimes he knew that were going
on in Yugoslavia and Greece:

In favour of Waldheim is, that he only had very minor possibilities to act against the injustices
happening. Actions against these, depending on which level the resistance occurred, were of very
different importance. For a young member of the staff, who did not have any military authority on the
army group level, the practical possibilities for resistance were very limited and with a high probability
would not have led to any actual results. Resistance would have been limited to a formal protest or on
the refusal to serve any longer in the army, which would have seemed to be a courageous act, however
would have not led to any practical achievement. [31]

Term of presidency 1986–1992

Throughout his term as president (1986–1992), Waldheim and his wife Elisabeth were officially deemed
personae non gratae by the United States.[32] In 1987, they were put on a watch list of persons banned
from entering the United States and remained on the list even after the publication of the International
Committee of Historians' report on his military past in the Wehrmacht. He also was not invited to, and
therefore did not, visit any other Western countries during his term as Austrian president. Waldheim
therefore concentrated his state visits on the Middle East, the Vatican and some communist states.

Later years and death

After his term ended in 1992, Waldheim did not seek reelection. The same years, he was made an
honorary member of K.H.V. Welfia Klosterneuburg, a Roman Catholic student fraternity that is a part of
the Austrian Cartellverband (ÖCV). In 1994, Pope John Paul II awarded Waldheim a knighthood in the
Order of Pius IX and his wife a papal honor.[33] He died on June 14, 2007 from heart failure. On June 23,
his funeral was held at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna and he was laid to rest at the Presidential Vault in
the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery).[34] In his speech at the Cathedral, Federal President Heinz
Fischer called Waldheim "a great Austrian" who had been wrongfully accused of having committed war
crimes. Fischer also praised Waldheim for his efforts to solve international crises and for his
contributions to world peace.[35] At Waldheim's own request, no foreign heads of states or
governments were invited to attend his funeral. Hans-Adam II, the Prince of Liechtenstein, a
neighbouring country of Austria, was the only one to be present. Also present was Luis Durnwalder,
governor of the Italian province of South Tyrol. Syria and Japan were the only two countries that laid a
wreath. In a two-page letter, published posthumously by the Austrian Press Agency the day after he
died, Waldheim admitted making "mistakes" ("but these were certainly not those of a follower let alone
an accomplice of a criminal regime") and asked his critics for forgiveness.[36]

Media references

W. G. Sebald's novel The Rings of Saturn (1995; English trans., 1998) refers to Waldheim, though not by
name.[37]

As a much-heralded invited guest on Dame Edna Everage's talk show The Dame Edna Experience, a
dignified "Kurt Waldheim" began a grand entrance, except that halfway down the staircase he abruptly
fell through a hidden chute and disappeared: the band's fanfare stopped as Dame Edna explained she
had decided at the last minute to "abort" Dr. Waldheim's appearance because it would have been "too
political." The episode aired 12 September 1987.

A running segment on The Howard Stern Show is called Guess Who's the Jew and features Fred Norris
portraying a Nazi Kurt Waldheim, Jr.[38]

Musician Lou Reed's 1988 "New York" album contains a song called "Good Evening Mr. Waldheim."

Harry Turtledove's 2003 alternate history novel, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, in which Germany
won the Second World War, a "Kurt Haldweim" is the third Führer of Germany, and parts of Haldweim's
biography closely parallel Waldheim's.

In a 1988 ice hockey film entitled Hockey, The Lighter Side, former New York Rangers goaltender John
Davidson is explaining his fictional goaltender school and as hockey highlights play he exclaims, "You'll
have more shots taken at you than Kurt Waldheim".

In episode 3, series 2 of The Million Pound Radio Show, Andy Hamilton announces next week's special
guest as Waldheim, "although he'll deny [his appearance on the show] in 40 years time."

In an episode of The New Statesman, aired in 1989, Alan B'Stard (Rik Mayall) attempts to blackmail an
aged former Nazi officer, who complains that, "it's not fair; I'm living here in the tripe capital of Europe,
while Kurt Waldheim is President of Austria- and he was beneath me!"

Further reading

Bassett, Richard (1988). Waldheim and Austria, Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-013019-5

International Commission of Historians (1993). The Waldheim Report. Copenhagen: Museum

Tusculanum, University of Copenhagen. pp. 224 p. ISBN 87-7289-206-4.

Waldheim, Kurt (1985). In the eye of the storm: the memoirs of Kurt Waldheim. London: Weidenfeld
and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78678-4.
Waldheim, Kurt. Die Antwort (The Answer).

Waldheim, Kurt. The Austrian Example.

Waldheim, Kurt. The Challenge of Peace.

Waldheim, Kurt. Building the Future Order.

References

^ Former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim dies at 88 - Haaretz - Israel News

^ Kurt Waldheim, The Daily Telegraph, 15 June 2007.

^ Report of the International Historical Commission of 8 February 1988, section on "Membership in

National Socialist Organizations", as cited for example in
http://nationalsozialismus.at/Themen/Umgang/waldheim.htm

^ a b "Kurt Waldheim: Austrian head of the UN who as president of his country was later tainted by
charges of complicity in Nazi atrocities". The Times (London: News Corporation). 15 June 2007.
Retrieved 13 October 2008.

^ see page 39 of The Waldheim Report. Submitted 8 February 1988 to Federal Chancellor Dr. Franz
Vranitzky

^ Walther-Peer Fellgiebel (2000), Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945. Podzun-
Pallas. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5

^ Kandell, Jonathan (15 June 2007). "Kurt Waldheim". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
""Waldheim took part in, and was decorated for, Operation Kozara, a large-scale antipartisan operation
involving mass reprisals – at the rate of 100 executions for every German killed – and mass deportations
to concentration camps.""

^ a b Casey, Dennis (1 May 2005). "Kurt Waldheim: man of mystery.". Spokesman Magazine.

^ Letter from Europe: Vienna, 20 June: The New Yorker

^ "Kurt Waldheim". The Daily Telegraph (London). 15 June 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2010.

^ Rosenbaum, EM with Hoffer W, Betrayal: The Untold Story of the Kurt Waldheim Investigation and
Cover-Up St. Martin's Press, 1993, ISBN 0-312-08219-3, p. 338

^ a b BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Obituary: Kurt Waldheim

^ Israeli-Ugandan Relations in the Time of Idi Amin by Arye Oded, Jewish Political Studies Review 18:3-4
(Fall 2006)
^ a b http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?
DRIT=5&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=625&PID=1631&IID=1643&TTL=Israeli-
Ugandan_Relations_in_the_Time_of_Idi_Amin

^ Voyager - Spacecraft - Golden Record

^ "Discipline and Devotion", TIME, 28 May 1979 article. Accessed 1 December 2008.

^ CBC.ca - Arts - Music - Charity Begins

^ See Section "Military Service" above

^ a b c d e Serrill, Michael S.; William McWhirter, Wayne Svoboda (7 April 1986). "Sequels Running Out
of Answers". Time (magazine). Retrieved 13 October 2008.

^ Efraim Zuroff, "Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, 2001–2002," Simon
Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem (April 2002).

^ http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,545392,00.html

^ Historical Analysis of 20 Name Files from CIA Records http://www.archives.gov/iwg/declassified-

records/rg-263-cia-records/rg-263-report.html

^ WSWS obituary [1]

^ "Kurt Waldheim". The Independent (London). 15 June 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2010.

^ Victor Ostrovsky (1994). The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue Agent Exposes the Mossad's Secret
Agenda. HarperCollins (New York).

^ "18 June 2008 meeting - Victor Ostrovsky, Former Mossad Officer". AFIO. June 2008.

^ Connolly, Kate (2 May 2001). "CIA knew about Waldheim's Nazi past". The Guardian (London).
Retrieved 7 May 2010.

^ Simon Wiesenthal "The Waldheim Case" in Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria edited by Dagmar
Lorenz. pp 81-95, University of Nebraska press

^ Simon Wiesenthal "The Waldheim Case" in Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria edited by Dagmar
Lorenz. page 91, University of Nebraska Press

^ Kurt Waldheim | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

^ James L. Collins Jr. u.a.: Bericht der internationalen Historikerkommission, Schlussbetrachtung, 8.

Februar 1988. (translated from German)

^ "Waldheim, ex-UN leader and Nazi, buried in Austria". Reuters. 23 June 2007.
^ "Waldheim's Wife Gets a Papal Award". The New York Times. 22 August 1994. Retrieved 14 June 2007.

^ "Former Austrian president whose term was marred by wartime service buried", Associated Press
(International Herald Tribune), 23 June 2007.

^ http://www.hofburg.at/show_content2.php?s2id=855 Speech of President Heinz Fischer (official text)

^ http://activepaper.tele.net/vntipps/WaldheimVermaechtnis.pdf

^ http://www.buzzwords.ndo.co.uk/mellor/ringsofsaturn.html

^ Howard Stern.com