austria 2003-4

 

Antisemitic activities increased in Austria by 70 percent in 2003. As in previous years, antisemitism was manifested mainly in propaganda. Alongside classical antisemitism coming mainly from the extreme right, virulent anti-Zionist and anti-Israel propaganda incorporating antisemitic motifs was disseminated also by far rightists, as well as by extreme leftists and pro-Palestinian activists, sometimes all in concert.

 

the jewish community

Austria has a Jewish population of 10,000 out of a total population of 8 million. Most registered members of the community are affiliated to the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (Jewish Community Vienna). The present community, most of whom live in Vienna, is made up of several groups, the most numerous being returnee Austrians and their families, as well as former refugees from Eastern Europe. A Jewish primary school and high school, as well as several Jewish publications, serve the needs of the community.

 

EXTREMIST ORGANIZATIONS AND antisemitic activity

Antisemitic activities increased in Austria by 70 percent in 2003. The NGO Forum against Anti-Semitism recorded 134 acts. According to the Ministry of Interior report for 2003, 299 extreme right-wing criminal acts, including 26 xenophobic and 9 antisemitic incidents, took place in Austria, a decrease of 27 incidents from 2002. A total of 436 incidents, mainly suspected infringement of the Nazi prohibition law, were reported to the police; 80 house searches were carried out, 34 weapons were found and four persons were arrested.

As in previous years antisemitism in Austria was manifested mainly in propaganda. Alongside classical antisemitism coming mainly from the extreme right, virulent anti-Zionist and anti-Israel propaganda incorporating antisemitic motifs was disseminated also by members of the far right, as well as by extreme leftists and pro-Palestinian activists, sometimes in concert.

 

Far Right and Neo-Nazi Activity

In January 2003 the Viennese Burschenschaft (fraternity) Olympia, whose membership includes numerous FPÖ (Austrian Freedom Party) politicians, hosted a ‘national song evening’ with the German neo-Nazi Michael Müller. Among the latter’s repertoire is a modified version of the song of German soloist Udo Jürgens: “With 6 million Jews, the fun only begins / Up to 6 million Jews, the furnace is on… / We have plenty of Cyclone B… / With 6 million Jews, it is still not time to stop.”

The conservative theologian Robert Prantner, who in 1997 revived the ritual Jewish murder myth in the weekly Zur Zeit (closely associated with the FPÖ), focused in the February 2003 edition on his favorite topic – the Jews’ ‘hatred’ of Christians. Responding to an incident involving a security check on the archbishop of Jerusalem by “Jewish officials” at Ben-Gurion Airport, he compared the hatred of the “Jewish masters from Palestine” with “the clamor of the high priests of the Sanhedrim two millennia ago to crucify Jesus.”

After a long hiatus until the release from prison of former editor Walter Ochensberger, a new edition of the antisemitic magazine Phoenix was published in March. Ochensberger’s old comrade Egon G.L Rieder (Mohammedia) is the responsible editor and managing director.

The extreme right-wing publisher Hemma Tiffner seeks to keep alive the ritual murder myth of the child ‘Anderl of Rinn [Tirol]’ (see ASW 1997/8). In April she wrote a poem in her magazine Die Umwelt (The Environment), which included the words: “Still no doubt lay over Rinn / that Schächtung [slaughter] had occurred / as the poor child / was seen hanging on the tree.” Later in the year she urged participation in the annual memorial service for the child.

In spring, Der Patriot, the antisemitic magazine of Günter Segers, published in Vienna, held “the Jew David Ellensohn,” a Green Party representative of the state parliament, responsible for the removal of a plaque commemorating the ‘heroic’ Nazi pilot Major Walter Nowotny, claiming, “Once again Austrian parties have proved themselves a compliant instrument of the Jews…” (see also below). Further, Segers viewed the death of politician Jürgen W. Möllemann of the FPD (Free Democratic Party – the Liberals) through the prism of his conspiracy worldview, maintaining that Möllemann’s fate was sealed when he quarreled with “with the Jewish centers of power.” Segers also referred to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as “the butcher of Israel” and declared that the governments of the western world were “tools of the Zionists.”

In May 2003 Vice Chancellor and FPÖ chairman Herbert Haupt congratulated the extreme right-wing Österreichischen Landsmannschaft (ÖLM) on the 50th anniversary of its publication Der Eckart (formerly Eckartbote; see ASW 2002/3). In April 1989 the latter had commemorated Hitler’s birthday as well as the anniversary of Reinhard Heydrich’s death. Haupt sent his “best wishes” for “the next half century.”

After proceedings against Gregor Maierhofer, founder of the National Democratic Party of Austria (NPÖ) were dropped in 2002 (see ASW 2002/3), the party began acting more openly in neo-Nazi fashion. An article on the NPÖ homepage denying the Holocaust was the subject of a complaint by the Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes (DÖW) to the prosecutor's office on the grounds of violation of the NS-prohibition law. Entitled “Kriegsgrund Holocaust Ungläubigkeit?” (Casus Belli: Disbelief in Holocaust), the article stated: “Israel’s Holocaust politics get so much support because each Jew is an Israeli as well (e.g., Paul Spiegel and Michel Friedman).”

Antisemitic propaganda and conspiracy theories can be downloaded from the NPÖ-homepage, for example, the claims that the Mossad was behind the attack on the synagogue in Lübeck, Germany (1994 and 1995) and the letter bomb series in Austria (1993 and 1995), that the slave-trade was “in Jewish hands,” and that Möllemann (see above) was the victim of a Jewish conspiracy. The old Nazi accusation that the Jews, “from whose loins the greatest mass murderers of mankind sprang” – were behind bolshevism also appears.

The Schutzbündnis Soldatengrab (Alliance for Protecting Military Cemeteries) was intending to hold a demonstration on 23 August 2003 in Vienna in memory of the pilot Walter Nowotny (see above). The operation was planned by the Niederdonau section of the Schwarze (Black) Division, an underground German-Austrian neo-Nazi militia, whose uniforms and badges are reminiscent of the SS. The demonstration was forbidden by the authorities in view of their openly demonstrated neo-Nazi background. In response to the ban, the Ring Freiheitlicher Jugend (FPÖ youth) called on its homepage to “all associations, clubs and private individuals loyal to the fatherland” to meet at Nowotny’s grave at the Viennese central cemetery on 1 November to honor his memory. About 50 right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis answered the call.

Neo-Nazi concerts took place on 26 July in Geinberg, with about 400 visitors, and on 6 September in Vorchdorf (Gmunden district), organized by Blood & Honour, with 650−1000 skinhead participants. According to the neo-Nazi website WPMP3 − Das Original aus dem Reich (The Original from the ‘Reich’) − the following antisemitic and racist groups took part: Noie Werte (Germany), Propaganda (Germany), Stonehammer (Canada), Tollschock (Austria), Razors Edge (GB), and Aggressive Force and Bully Boys (US). A hit during the concert was the song “Six Million,” praising the Holocaust. The performance was accompanied by chanting of “Sieg Heil!” The security authorities did not intervene.

 

Holocaust Denial

On 21 June 2003 Wolfgang Fröhlich was arrested in Vienna after three years in hiding. The former FPÖ district councilor is considered to be one of the most zealous Holocaust deniers within the German-speaking world. His most recent activity had been the dissemination of “Der Gaskammerschwindel” (The Gas Chamber Swindle) on CD ROM. Neo-Nazis reacted angrily to Fröhlich’s arrest. Ostara, the militant Internet domain of German-language antisemites, claimed that Fröhlich was the “victim of Israeli vassal politics.” Assuming the style of The Protocols of Elders of Zion, Ostara stated: “We, the Jews, control Austria and we do not allow any freedom of opinion… in no way can we bear revisionists, who might endanger our industry of deception [Abzockindustrie].”

The German neo-Nazi website stoertebeker branded the trial against the “dissident scientist” Fröhlich an “inquisition.” Edmund Eminger, who has been active since the 1960s on the militant neo-Nazi scene, wrote on the site of Fröhlich’s “struggle against the holocaust swindle”: “At least [it] is also one against the second greatest lie in world history [the Jewish-Christian religion]." In September Fröhlich was sentenced under the Nazi prohibition law to three years imprisonment.

In the January edition of the Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung (Quarterly for Free Historical Research − forum for Holocaust deniers), self-proclaimed expert on the gas chambers Walter Lüftl published an article and a reader's letter praising Swiss Holocaust denier Jürgen Graf, who is on the run from Swiss justice. Lüftl was forced to resign in 1992 as president of the Federal Society of Engineers after excerpts from his mendacious gas chamber report was published in Gerd Honsik’s magazine HALT.

 

Anti-Zionist Activities

An alliance of left-oriented, nationalist, pan-Arabic and Islamist organizations demonstrated against Israel on 27 September, the 3rd anniversary of the intifada. The coalition, organized by the Austrian Social Forum, included the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christentum und Sozialdemokratie (Christian Working Group and Social Democracy), the Austrian branch of the Hamas, the Palestinian Association in Austria and the Communist Party of Austria, as well as several youth groups and the student organization of the SPÖ (Austrian Socialist Party). SPÖ Member of Parliament Hannes Swoboda was one of the main speakers. The representative of the Arabische Palästina Club (which is close to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) declared: “Today is the third anniversary of the intifada, the uprising of the people of Palestine against the Zionist-racialist occupation and its politics of annihilation… History has confirmed this again and again; it is also proven that fascist regimes and organizations like the ones connected to the Zionist-state as well as US imperialists and their Zionist lackeys are unable to learn from history…”

Under the headline “Jewish Meeting in Vienna Disturbed by Marxists,” the neo-Nazi website stoertebeker reported approvingly that, “during the speech of the Jewish ‘psychologist’ Alexander Friedmann, member of the executive committee of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde, about 10 persons with Palestinian flags stormed into the Zirkusgasse and disturbed the commemoration of the victims [of Reichskristallnacht, 9 Nov, 1938] with slogans against Israel and the US.” Actually, the provocateurs were not Marxists but activists from Sedunia, an obscure pro-Islamist group from Vienna, as well as from the Arab Palestine Club. Earlier, in October, Sedunia published a manifesto on its Internet forum calling for an end to political correctness: “Down with the Israel apologists and guilt-priests... It is time to tear down the temples of the Holocaust, to bury the legend of historical responsibility and to regard Israel finally as a normal state… Let the UN occupy Israel, and take Sharon and his buddies, who are responsible for the massacre of Sabra and Shatilla, to the international court of justice, and end Zionist megalomania!” It should be noted that the neo-Nazis of stoertebeker are ready to offer “collegial assistance” to Sedunia, in order “to give our leftist friends from Austria a helping hand.”

In November the Palestinian community in Austria published a photo showing Sharon and Bush as apes. The neo-Nazi organization Heimatschutz (FRG), published the same photo, representing the Israelis as Untermenschen, or animals.

Anti-Americanism and its link to antisemitism and anti-Zionism were evident in the propaganda of various right-wing extremist groups. In Linz and other upper Austrian cities groups such the Federation of Free Youth (BfJ) and the Kameradschaft Germania (comradeship Germania/KSG) displayed slogans such as “No Blood for Oil!” and portrayed Bush as ‘Rambo’ on posters with the caption: “Murder is his hobby!” The Austrian neo-Nazi Gerd Honsik, who fled to Spain from Austrian justice, demonstrated this link clearly in HALT. Accordingly, the US was at war for one reason only: the desire for economic growth − “the undemocratic American right to amass wealth,” for which the Jews were responsible: “Only a few families [the Jews] have the power to print green paper to the value of one cent… and to label it ‘100 dollars’ and then to place this deadwood at the state’s disposal at interest.”

Der Patriot, labeled President Bush a “megalomaniac, who is apparently inspired by the Talmud and not the New Testament.” Even if Bush was no Jew, he behaved like one, it claimed.

The National Conservative Union (NAKU) and the Occidental National European Union (ANEU), led by the Viennese right-wing extremist William Ehemayer, released a statement on 22 March against the “politics of warmongers and ‘one world’ strategists dependent on the grace of freemasons and Zionists.” Right-wing extremists such as Haider joined the anti-American chorus. During anti-war demonstrations in Vienna in March, activists from his party the FPÖ distributed their “resolution against the threat of the Iraq war.”

Haider and other FPÖ activists have close ties to the Arab world. Haider is president of the Austrian-Libyan Society, and FPÖ parliamentary leader Herbert Scheibner chairs the Austrian-Syrian Society, of which he was a co-founder at the end of 2001 (see also ASW 2002/3). The anti-Israel motive behind Haider’s view of the US and its allies was demonstrated clearly in an interview that Haider gave to Zur Zeit. He argued that from the US viewpoint Iraq had to be removed from the scene since it was a threat to Israel and a supporter of the Palestinians.

Shortly before the allied invasion of Iraq, Hans Kronberger (FPÖ member of the European Parliament) revealed in Zur Zeit that the ‘real aim’ of the war was “transformation of the entire Near and Middle East into an American-Israeli protectorate.” Similarly, the Catholic conservative Friedrich Romig concluded that “the problem in the Middle East is not Saddam Husayn but Bush and his Israeli friends, who “together… want to transform the remaining world into their colony.”