File Linked to Waldheim Case Missing From Austria Archives

A personnel file that former U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim maintains would clear him of charges that he was a member of Nazi organizations is missing from Austrian Foreign Ministry archives, officials said Friday.

Foreign Minister Leopold Gratz told a news conference that Waldheim’s main file at the ministry is missing all documents dealing with a crucial period between 1945 and 1970.

Gratz confirmed a report in the Vienna daily newspaper Kronen Zeitung saying the missing documents include the findings of a special commission that cleared Waldheim in 1945 of links with the Nazis before and during World War II. The clearance was a requirement for Waldheim’s employment by the Austrian government. He was foreign minister from 1968 to 1970.

“The files of that time (1945-1970) are not there,” Gratz said.

Ministry spokesman Otmar Koler said, “I can’t give any explanation” for the disappearance of the documents.

No ‘Permissions Slip’

The newspaper reported that there was no “permissions slip” required for removing documents from the file.

The Waldheim files now only contain documents between 1937 and 1945 and since Aug. 20, 1970, when he was appointed ambassador to the United Nations, Gratz said. Waldheim went on to serve two terms as secretary general between 1972 and 1982.

Waldheim, 67, is now campaigning for the largely ceremonial post of president of Austria in the May 4 election. He has maintained that allegations of Nazi links are designed to hurt his candidacy.

Gerold Christian, a Waldheim spokesman, said the documents show that Waldheim was investigated by state police in 1946, when he applied for a job in the Foreign Ministry, and was found to have no Nazi connections.

Waldheim joined the foreign service in 1946 as an office assistant. He became foreign minister in the conservative People’s Party government of 1966-70. Although he is running as an independent, Waldheim has been endorsed by the People’s Party in the campaign against Kurt Steyrer, the governing Socialist Party candidate.

Linked to Storm Troopers

The World Jewish Congress, the New York Times and the Vienna weekly news magazine Profil this month cited documents that they said indicated that Waldheim was enrolled in the SA, the Nazi Party’s storm trooper organization, and in a Nazi-affiliated student organization.

Waldheim has also been accused of covering up his service in a German army command involved in deporting Balkan Jews to death camps. Waldheim, who says he served in the German army as an interpreter, has said he knew nothing of the deportations and denied trying to hide his service record.