Austrian Officials Deny
Tolerating Anti-Semitism
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Tel Aviv (JTA) — Austria's
Ambassador to Israel, Otto
Pleinart, and Walter Schimmer,
a member of the Austrian parlia-
ment, assured Israelis last Sun-
day that anti-Semitism in any
form would not be tolerated in
Austria.
Pleinert and Schwimmer, who
is a member of President-elect
Kurt Waldheim's People's Par-
ty, both spoke at a gathering at
Givat Haviva marking the fifth
anniversary of the assassination
of Hein Nittel, president of the
Austria-Israel Friendship
League, who was gunned down
by an Arab terrorist in Vienna
in June, 1981. Schwimmer
presently occupies the post held
by Nittel.
The Austrian envoy declared
that one of the objectives of the
Friendship League is to fight
anti-Semitism "or what is left of
it" in Austria. "Even a remnant
of anti-Semitism is intolerable,"
he said.
Charges of anti-Semitism dur-
ing the recent Austrian
Presidential campaign have
come from many sources. The
Austrian Jewish community ac-
cused leaders of Waldheim's
party of resorting to anti-
Semitic canards in a backlash
against efforts, mainly by the
World Jewish Congress, to ex-
pose Waldheim's Nazi past.
Israel reacted to Waldheim's
election by recalling its Am-
bassador in Vienna, Michael
Elitur. Elitur, who has not
returned to his post, declined to
comment on his recall.
In another development, in
Vienna the Austrian Jewish
community spoke out strongly
against the anti-Semitism that
permeated the election cam-
paign of Waldheim. The com-
munity's board of directors
issued a statement at a press
conference deploring the "ir-
responsible" language of conser-
vative politicians who sup-
ported Waldheim.
Dr. Ivan Hacker, president of
the Austrian Jewish communi-
ty, noted that the community
had consciously refrained from
making statements during the
election campaign. "But now,
after the election, we cannot
stay silent any longer" because
"further silence would be harm-
ful to all of us."
"We have to take note of the
irresponsibility of those leading
policitians" who "might not
have acted out of an inner con-
-viction, but cynically used the
means of Lueger-type political
anti-Semitism," Hacker said.
He was referring to Karl Lueger,
a popular Mayor of Vienna at
the turn of the century who was
one of the first European politi-
cians to employ anti-Semitic
propaganda to win office.
Hacker did not name anyone
in the Waldheim campaign, but
younger members of the com-
munity board singled out,
among others, Michael Graff,
secretary-general of the People's
Party. Graff promptly denied
that he had made a singly anti-
Semitic statement during the
election campaign and attacked
"the Mafia-type methods of the
slanderers of the World Jewish
Congress."
Other board members at-
tributed anti-semitic remarks
not only to Graff but to Alois
Mock, chairman of the People's
Party, Marga Hubenik, conser-
vative Deputy Speaker of the
Austrian Parliament, Walter
Schwimmer, a conservative
member of Parliament and
president of the Austria-Israel
Friendship Society, and several
others.
While the Austrian Jewish
community held various opi-
nions about the World Jewish
Congress campaign to expose
Waldheim's World War II ac-
tivities and the manner in which
it was conducted, some of them
critical, it refuses to disassociate
itself from the WJC.
Community board members
were skeptical of Waldheim's
approaches to the Jewish com-
munity since his election. "If we
Jews are not able to pick our
enemies, we can at least choose
our friends," Hacker said.
Charin alluded to Waldheim's
announcement that he would
shortly visit the site of the
Mauthausen concentration
camp and its satellite camps
north of Vienna, one of the most
notorious concentration camps
of World War II. "Going to
Mauthausen and bowing one's
head is not enough to get ins-
tant absolution for what one did
in the weeks and months before.
It makes sense only if there is
also an inner bow," he said.
Meanwhile, in developments
in Washington, over a hundred
members of the House of
Representatives appealed to
President Reagan to boycott the
inauguration of Waldheim as
President of Austria.
In a letter sent to the White
House, the legislators asked
that neither he nor any other
American official attend the
former UN Secretary General's
inaugural ceremony, scheduled
for July 8.
An investigation into Wald-
heim's war activities is current-
ly underway at the Justice
Department, which is consider-
ing whether to bar the Austrian
President-elect from entering
this country.
Meanwhile, White House of-
ficials revealed recently that
Waldheim phoned Vice Presi-
dent George Bush about two
months ago to deny allegations
that he committed Nazi war
crimes, according to a report in
The New York Times Bush's
press secretary, Martin Fitz-
water, said Waldheim's call to
Bush, an acquaintance from the
years Bush served as the United
States' chief delegate to the UN,
came in the first week of April.
Waldheim worked with Bush
during Bush's term at the UN
from 1970 to1973.
(