Saturday, June 16, 2007

Waldheim's posthumous plea for "Versöhnung" (reconciliation)

Kurt Waldheim (2nd from left), tireless doer of good deeds, in the Balkans on 05/22/1943 with (from left) Gen. Escola Roncaglia (Italian), Col. Herbert Macholz (Wehrmacht/German) and Artur Phleps (Waffen-SS/German), commander of the "Prince Eugen" Division

Kurt Waldheim left us a statement that was released after his death, to remind us what a rightwing sleaze-bag he was: Waldheim bittet posthum um Versöhnung Der Standard 15.06.07 (Waldheim pleads posthumously for reconciliation).

The full German text is here: Im Wortlaut: Das Waldheim-Vermächtnis Der Standard 15.06.07.

What better way to remember the old war criminal than by looking at his self-representation?

The first few paragraphs of his little testament to the world is blah, blah, I'm a great guy, I cared about the poor people of the world, yadda, yadda.

Then he proceeds to explain that he did nothing at all wrong during the war and that he hopes all them there Jews and socialists will realize how wrong they were to criticize an upright Austrian patriot like him. And how he would have spoken out more strongly about the crimes of the Nazi regime - which he had nothing whatsoever to do with, remember - but he couldn't because all those Jews were criticizing him so much.

Am I being unfair?


Here's the fifth paragraph in German:

Aber auch all jenen, die mir kritisch gegenübergestanden sind, gilt mein Gruß und meine Bitte, ihre Motive noch einmal zu überdenken und mir - wenn möglich - eine späte Versöhnung zu schenken. Vielleicht ist auch dies durch meinen Weggang von dieser Erde leichter geworden. Ja, ich habe auch Fehler gemacht - und glücklicherweise viel Zeit gehabt, um sie immer wieder zu überdenken. Es waren aber sicher nicht jene der Mitläufer- oder gar Mittäterschaft mit einem verbrecherischen Regime. Zu prägend waren für mich die Haltung und das Schicksal meiner Familie. Im Rückblick sehe ich die Ursachen für die zu späte Aufarbeitung des Geschehens vor allem in der Hektik meines übervollen internationalen Lebens und - über Jahre und Jahrzehnte hinweg - auch in meiner Abwesenheit von Österreich und Europa. Als Generalsekretär der Vereinten Nationen war ich nahezu täglich mit Kriegen, Gewalt und politischer Willkür, mit Millionen in Not und Verzweiflung lebender, mit verfolgten, gedemütigten und um ihre um Rettung - unsere Erfolge und unser Scheitern - verstellte, überwucherte zu lange die Erinnerung an die Verbrechen der Vergangenheit. (my emphasis)
This is the classic politicians aggressive non-apology apology - "I apologize if you feel bad because you're such a total jerk" - taken to an absurd extreme. In the first part I've bolded in that paragraph, he says, "But also all those who were critical of me, I give you my salutations and my plea to think over your motive again and - if possible - come to a late reconciliation with me."

This is something like an inveterate segregationist and total racist making a "reconciliation" plea by saying, "I hope all those blacks and Latinos who criticized me unfairly for the most despicable of motives will realize what filthy trash they are and have always been." It's not any plea for reconciliation; it's just more of the sleaze-slinging progoganda he cranked out for the last two decades of his life.

He admits "I've also made mistakes". Kind of like the torturers at Abu Ghuraib would confess that they made a mistake by not keeping the whole thing secret.

As he proceeds to say, "But they certainly weren't the mistakes of a fellow traveler - much less mistakes of someone involved with a criminal regime," i.e., the Third Reich. He says, darn, he would have liked to have said more about the awful things that happened under that regime - which he had nothing whatsoever to do with, nothing at all! - but he couldn't because his whole life he was so busy doing good deeds.

I already want to throw up. And there's still two paragraphs to go.

Es war aber wohl auch jene Staatsraison, die wir junge Nachkriegs-Diplomaten zu vertreten hatten und die uns Österreicher als "Hitlers erstes Opfer" den Weg zu Freiheit und Staatsvertrag geöffnet hatte. Zutiefst bedauere ich, dass ich - unter dem äußeren Druck monströser Beschuldigungen, die mit meinem Leben und meinem Denken nichts zu tun hatten - viel zu spät zu den NS-Verbrechen umfassend und unmissverständlich Stellung genommen habe. Ursache dafür war weder eine zweifelhafte Grundhaltung noch irgend ein politisches Kalkül, sondern die Betroffenheit, Kränkung, ja das Entsetzen über Inhalt und Ausmaß dieser Vorwürfe. "Übernehmen wir die Verantwortung für unsere Fehler in einer Form, die dazu angetan ist, künftige Fehler zu vermeiden", habe ich am 10. März 1988 - 50 Jahre nach dem "Anschluss" an Hitler-Deutschland - in einer Fernsehansprache gesagt. Mehr denn je bin ich heute der Überzeugung, dass alles, was wir Österreicher geschaffen haben, um es an kommende Generationen weiterzugeben, nur dann eine Chance auf Dauerhaftigkeit hat, wenn wir uns auch zu einem gemeinsamen Geschichtsverständnis bekennen. Wo immer ich konnte, wollte ich Menschen versöhnen und verbinden; wollte in Konflikten Brücken bauen und Gemeinsamkeiten stärken. Kaum eine andere Funktion war in diesem Sinn erfahrungsreicher als die des UNO-Generalsekretärs. Umso bitterer war meine Enttäuschung, dass ich diese globale Erfahrung für uns alle im Amt des Bundespräsidenten meiner geliebten Republik Österreich nicht so einsetzen und meine vielen Vorhaben nicht so umsetzen konnte, wie ich das erhofft hatte. (my emphasis)
Here, he whines so hard he rivals the whining of a old-time Mississippi segregationist complaining how badly us white folks are picked on by all those, you know, minorities. Here he explains why, in addition to all those good deeds he was constantly doing, he couldn't address the legacy of the Third Reich like he really wanted to:

I regret most seriously that I - under the pressure of monstrous accusations that had nothing to do with my life and my thinking - waited much too long to take a clear and unmistakable position on the Nazi crimes. The reason for that was neither doubtful basic convictions nor any kind of political calculation, but rather the consternation, the offense, even the horror over the content and volume of these accusations.
A shorter version would be, The Jews are to blame for everything! Yep, that's Kurt Waldheim. Speaking from the grave in the same voice in which he spoke in life.

Then he rattles on some more about how well he served his country and all his good deeds and good intentions and so on for the rest of the document.

I had to chuckle at the note Der Standard left at the end of the text. They said they had shut down the online comments on the article because of "der vielen pietätlosen Kommentare" (the many disrespectful comments) that were posted there.

Doggone, I so wanted to post my respectful comments from this post there. I guess my blog post will have to do.

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