> >
Print

Austria 2005

 

Austria’s Forum against Antisemitism reported 143 antisemitic incidents in 2005 including one of physical assault. Dissension within the FPÖ culminated in a split and the formation of a new party, Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), led by Jörg Haider. Under its new chairman, Heinz-Christian Strache, the FPÖ reverted to being a radical opposition party and intensified its racist and antisemitic rhetoric. British Holocaust denier David Irving was arrested on 11 November in Vienna.

 

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, mostly located 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, such as the monthly Die Gemeinde and Aufbau and the quarterly David, serve the needs of the community.

 

extremist organizations and groups

Ultra-Right-Wing Organizations

Dissension within the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), between the faction led by Carinthian Governor Jörg Haider and the more hard-line group around Euro-Parliament member Andreas Mölzer, culminated in a split in April, after the ‘pragmatists’ failed to muster a majority for Mölzer’s expulsion. While FPÖ members of the government and the majority of FPÖ parliamentarians followed Haider to form the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), most FPÖ politicians and groups remained with the original party. Carinthia was the only state where the entire FPÖ cadre joined the BZÖ.

Under its new chairman, Heinz-Christian Strache, the FPÖ reverted to being a radical opposition party and intensified its racist rhetoric, satisfying neo-Nazis both within and outside Austria. Since most remaining FPÖ politicians have an antisemitic background (such as former membership in student fraternities and pan-Germanic groups), antisemitic and Nazi apologetics increased in 2005.

In an interview to the Viennese weekly Falter in March, Strache said it was obvious that the Republic of Austria was not responsible for Nazi crimes. He labeled deserters from the Wehrmacht ‘perpetrators’ and saw no difference between the fascist Austrian regime, the Nazi regime and the Allied occupation: “From 1933 to 1955 there was no democratic system in Austria. There were atrocities in the concentration camps, expulsions [of Germans from Czechoslovakia] by President Eduard Beneš, violations and rape by the Allies. Systematic mass murder took place everywhere.” Similarly, BZÖ member of the Bundesrat Siegfried Kampl called deserters from the Nazi army “comrade murderers” and complained about the “brutal persecution of Nazis after 1945.”

Nazi apologetics also appeared in the monthly Die Aula, which is close to the FPÖ. In April, for example, it published an obituary of a high-ranking Nazi, Klaus Mahnert. The author, Otto Scrinzi, characterized Nazism in terms of “social justice, anti-materialistic communitarian thinking, and clear structures of responsibility and leadership instead of endless quarreling.”

An international meeting of representatives of right-wing extremist and neo-fascist parties from throughout Europe took place in Vienna from 11 to 13 November. The event was arranged by the FPÖ party college. In addition to FPÖ officials such as Heinz Christian Strache, Ewald Stadler and Andreas Mölzer, delegates came from six European countries (Belgium − Vlaams Belang; France − Front National; Italy − Azione Sociale; Romania − Romania Mare; Bulgaria − Ataka; and Spain − Alternativa Española). They discussed closer collaboration and forming a joint faction in the European Parliament in 2007.

On 27 July BZÖ member Siegfried Kampl, who, under the system of rotation, was due to become president of Austria’s upper house, was barred from taking office because of his pro-Nazi remarks. A coalition of Austrian parties approved a constitutional amendment to prevent him from becoming president.

 

Neo-Nazi Scene

Violent neo-Nazi groups in Upper Austria and in Vorarlberg pose a threat to public safety. In Upper Austria the Alliance of Free Youth (BFJ), a group modeled on Hitler Youth, tried to gain support by holding demonstrations and other activities. In Vorarlberg skinheads from the transnational Blood & Honour arranged concerts and clandestine meetings. In Vienna the neo-Nazi scene might consolidate under Gottfried Küssel. A local club house, run by the Team for Democratic Policy (AFP), a right-wing extremist group with neo-Nazi connections named after Dr. Fritz Stüber, a Nazi co-founder of FPÖ, is a key basis for neo-Nazi activities. Marking the anniversary of the death of Walter Nowotny (8 November 1944), a famed Nazi bomber pilot, has become an annual event held at the central cemetery in Vienna. In 2005 about 100 participants including several Viennese FPÖ politicians, met at his graveside.

As noted, German and Austrian neo-Nazis spoke approvingly of the new FPÖ hard line. On the bulletin board Wikingerversand German neo-Nazi Philipp Hasselbach of NPD Youth (Junge Nationaldemokraten) wrote in October that there were many Nazis in the FPÖ. Since Austrian laws prohibit Nazi-activities in public, he said, they would have to use FPÖ party structures. Hasselbach, who is acquainted with several Viennese FPÖ politicians, alluded to the FPÖ Youth organization, “where leading cadres are known as Nazis.”

            The annual ‘Political Academy’ meeting, organized by AFP, took place in Offenhausen/Upper Austria, on 14−16 October. Due to a police investigation the previous year, the event had to be held secretly, with only about 40 right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis, including German neo-Nazi Horst Mahler, who was one of the speakers.

 

antisemitic activity

According to the Austrian Interior Ministry, 188 extreme rightist (2004: 189), 13 racist (2004: 23) and 8 (2004: 17) antisemitic acts were reported in 2005, mostly propaganda and verbal offenses (threats) and damage to property (graffiti). In this connection 406 (2004: 322) legal proceedings were launched.

The NGO Forum against Antisemitism reported 143 antisemitic incidents (2004: 122) including one of physical assault (2004: four) and over 100 threatening and insulting letters sent to officials and institutions of the Jewish community. On 21 February an Orthodox Jew was attached by two youths in Vienna. The perpetrators fled after the intervention of another member of the community.

 

Holocaust Denial and Trivialization

British Holocaust denier David Irving was arrested on 11 November in Vienna. He had been invited to speak by the student fraternity Olympia, whose membership includes FPÖ politicians. The warrant for his arrest dated from 1989 when he was on a lecture tour arranged by FPÖ academics. He was tried in 2006.

            Irving’s arrest sparked a debate in Austria over laws against Holocaust denial. On 18 November Christian Fleck, president of the Austrian Sociology Society, published an article in Der Standard, which stated that while Irving was being tried, Austrian Nazis who took part in the crimes of the Holocaust were not.

In December a letter to the Iranian embassy in Berlin, written by Austrian neo-Nazi Gerd Honsik, was published on the German neo-Nazi Internet page Stoertebeker. Honsik called on the Iranian government to pay the costs of a defense lawyer for Canadian German Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, who was facing trial in Germany.

Viennese FPÖ politician Gregor Amhof wrote in the local paper Bezirkszeitung Alsergrund (May 2005) that there was no liberation in spring 1945. He equated victims of the war including “380,000 soldiers” with the victims of the Shoah. Moreover, the latter were not murdered, but “died in wartime.” This leveling of the Holocaust goes hand-in-hand with resentment against the Jewish victims as ‘privileged’. Amhof claimed that war victims were less honored than victims of the Shoah. Although Amhof’s contentions violate Austria’s NS prohibition law, since 2000 justice officials have been reluctant to prosecute, especially if a FPÖ politician is involved.

John Gudenus, a legislator in the Bundesrat (Austria’s Upper House) was deprived of his parliamentary immunity on 15 September for remarks made in May 2005 during his visit to the Mauthausen concentration camp casting doubt on aspects of the Holocaust. He was to be tried in 2006. According to Austrian law, he could face up to 10 years in prison for denying the Holocaust if found guilty by an eight member panel of jurors.

At the beginning of 2005 a so-called Baby Holocaust Memorial or Babycaust Museum, run by the militant Catholic Human Life International, was opened to the public in Vienna. The exhibit equates abortion with the Holocaust.

 

Propaganda

At a speech made in September in Graz, Styrian FPÖ chairman Leopold Schöggl claimed that since the Jews did not belong to the German nation (Volk), they threatened the Germans from outside: “We are increasingly exposed to outside influences,” he said. As an example, he mentioned textile maker Konrad Mautner, “a Jew from Vienna.”

In spring 2005 ProMedia, Vienna, published Flowers of Galilee’ by Israel Shamir, a Swedish antisemite who changed his name in 2001 to Joran Jermas and became a Greek Orthodox Christian. He believes Jews want to destroy the earth and use Christian children’s blood to make unleavened bread. He also does not doubt the authenticity of The Protocols of the Elder of Zion. Writing in the leftist antisemitic tradition, he equates capitalism with Judaism, referring to Wall Street as a center of Jewry and ‘mammonism’ as the real religion of the Jews. However, he also borrows terminology from neo-Nazism, such as the acronym ZOG (Zionist Occupied Government). The editor of Jermas’ book, Fritz Edlinger, general secretary of the Austro-Arab Friendship Society and former representative of the Austrian Social Democrats on the Socialist Middle East Committee, calls him a “leftist and a radical democrat.”

Several antisemitic articles appeared during the year in Zur Zeit, the weekly published by Andreas Mölzer. In April, for example, Friedrich Romig claimed that the Bush administration would “do the Jews’ bidding.” According to Romig, the Jews had advanced to their efforts to control the world by appointing Paul Wolfowitz president of the World Bank.

            An article in the July issue of Die Aula blamed the Jews for killing Jesus Christ, while in the September issue Holocaust denier Wolfgang Fröhlich was referred to as “a victim of the judiciary,” after he was sentenced to four years in prison in August. (His imprisonment was subsequently shortened to 18 months and he was released in May 2006.)

 

opinion polls

In May an international survey on behalf of the American Jewish Committee was published. In regard to Austria, 42 percent of Austrians asserted that Jews exploited the memory of the Holocaust for their own purposes; 27 percent would like to forget the Holocaust while 45 percent believed Jews exerted too much influence on world events.

In another survey commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League, 38 percent of Austrians assumed Jews were more loyal to Israel than to their country of residence; 33 percent held that Jews had too much power in international financial markets; 46 percent felt Jews still talked too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust and 16 percent held Jews responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.

 

responses to antisemitism

Some 21,000 people from 51 countries participated in a rally on 8 May to commemorate the liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp on 5 May 1945. Youngsters lit 100,000 candles for 100,000 victims at the site of the former concentration camp. On 12 May a commemoration ceremony was held in St. Polten in memory of 40,000 Jews from Hungary who were murdered by the Nazis in the region in May 1945.