I remember how my mother told me, when Kurt Waldheim was elected Secretary General, how the Austrians changed "overnight."

In 1971, of fourse, we knew or should have known, there were questions abouit Waldheim (and that the absence of informations didn't mean that the answer was good)

We saw during his tenure how he just didn't care about people. That was, of course, why and how he was elected.

I remember particularly when South Vietnam fell, some comment he made.

Then in 1986 we found out more. It turned out that there was only one real check of Kurt Waldheim.

He had never been a member of the Nazi Party. That happened because the entire list was captured before being desroyed, and it was used.

Nazi Party membership caught or identified a lot of people, but it didn't get all of them. In Kurt Waldheim's case, he had never actually joined the Nazi party, evidently because of his family, who would more have been loyal to Hapsburgs, a thing not looked on *totally* with disfavor by the Nazis. I am not 100% sure of the politics of his family but I did read it had something to do with it. Whatever it was, it was not regarded as committed to opposition to the Nazis.

He had never actually joined the Nazi party,
but he had done just about the maximum anyone could do who was not a member of the Nazi Party. He had been involved in the military, where he could do pretty bad things without being a member of the Nazi party, and he had even received a doctoral degree for an anti-Semitic thesis in 1944 and he kept on using the title untl about 1960. He'd got time off from the war to pursue that thesis.

Now some of what was revealed then or what you could deduce or wonder then has been forgotten.

Everyone limits this to the Balkans to the area where he was charged at one piont as a war criminal.

But actually the more serious things are likely earlier.

Kurt Waldheim had been involved with some military unit that helped the SS in 1941. Most likely, I think, he scouted and identified locations of Jews. His help was significant enough that he was released from service and sent to Vienna to pursue his degree.

Another accustion is that he was among 3 Germans
who robbed the Jewish community of Rhodes just before the Jews there were sent to Auschwitz. The former head of the Jewish community in Rhodes thought in 1986 that he recognized a picture of Waldheim. This would suggest that when he heard that when he heard the Jews of Rhodes were to be killed (this was late in the war, in 1944) he decided he could safely rob them.

Another very serious thing - not technically a war crime actually, was that Kurt Waldheim was instrumental in prolonging World War II - MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR THE NAZIS TO KILL MANY PEOPLE and he knew exactly what Nazi rule did.

He was responsible, not as a simple soldier, but by being instrumental in planning the capture of the Italian Army when Italy attempted to surender in September 1943.

This was great opportunity that was muffed. As a result, the German ARMY IMMEDIATELY got into Italy almost as far as the Allied advance, which was just across the water from Sicily. The Allies spent one and half years fighting their way very slowly up Italy and by the time it would have helped, they were in Germany. the only advantage the Allies got was landing fields for bombers, and the whole bombing wasn't that useful either.

It can be said that because the Nazis occupied almost all of Italy, the United States (and Britain - this was largely Churchill's idea) made a worse mistake than Bush did in 2003. Bush too, defeated one enemey only to let another - worse or more difficult enemy become entrenched. Bush too opened up a second front that gave no strategic advantage. Bush too gots lot of people killed in the country he was liberating. But the case against FDR actually would be stronger. However nobody in 1944 ran against him on that and still less did they call for the abadonment of Italy.

Back in 1974 or so, my 8th grade teacher called Waldheim a "deodorized Nazi." I think we all snickered. I have no idea how she knew, though my father suspects that since her husband knew some Washington insiders he might have had some info the general population didn't. When TNR broke the story some 20 years ago, I thought back on my teacher with new respect. She had been about 10 years ahead of the curve.

Soccer Dad: Back in 1974 or so, my 8th grade teacher called Waldheim a "deodorized Nazi." I think we all snickered. I have no idea how she knew, though my father suspects that since her husband knew some Washington insiders he might have had some info the general population didn't.
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She may not have known that much. Just that he was an Austrian, of a certain generation, and that nothing that contradicted the presumption was as known, as maybe there should have been known, It could have been one or two details about something. It may have been just his attitude towards things. For instance he was quite content that he only did what his bosses alllowed him to do. He said something like that.

Today Ron Lauder has an article in the New York Sun. http://www.nysun.com/article/56742

He writes that he first met Waldheim in New York in the late 1950s when he was 17 years old and Waldheim was Austria's permanent representative to the United Nations, and his first impression was that of a tall, impeccably dressed gentleman who was highly intelligent man, very cordial and extremely personable. He also was impressed by the fact that Waldheim seemed to know everyone.

Waldheim's English skills were perfect and after he tried talking to him in his high school German
they both quickly decided to converse English

Later on he must have been taken by surprise. He says he read the first reports with a lot of interest since he was about to become Ambassador to Austria.

He says he often (since then) used to often contrast that picture in his mind from the late 1950s with that famous photograph with that of a younger Waldheim in his Nazi uniform and tall jackboots.

He had no clue. He had been struck by Waldheim's reaction to Entebbe, where he called it " a serious violation of the national sovereignty of a United Nations member state."

He refused to attend Waldheim's inauguration, which would have been one of his first ceremonial duties as Ambassador and was backed up by President Reagan.

Soccer Dad: Maybe your teacher knew about Waldheim's doctoral thesis. Waldheim dropped that around 1960 when what he got it for became more known. That alone would have been more than enough to qualify him as a Nazi.

I don't know what she knew, but a few years ago I called her (after her husband passed away.) She was impressed that I remembered that. Still there was a vehemence with which she used that term that suggested she had some specific knowledge. (That's my, admittedly vague, recollection.)