Waldheim Data Known in Paris in ‘79, Hier Says

The Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies said Tuesday that it has found that the French government learned of the full war record of former U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim in 1979, long before his possible connection with war crimes became public knowledge.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Los Angeles-based organization, said that he and Rabbi Abraham Cooper confirmed during a visit to Paris last week that a report on Waldheim, now the favorite in Sunday’s runoff for the Austrian presidency, was prepared by French archivists in West Berlin on March 21, 1979.

“What makes this interesting is that the report came long before any other government showed interest in the case and followed only a short time after the publication of Waldheim’s autobiography, in which he claimed to have left the Nazi army in 1941 and returned to law school,” Hier said.

Waldheim’s autobiography was published in 1977.

International Furor

It was the disclosure only this year of the Austrian diplomat’s actual reassignment to army duty in the Balkans in 1941 that launched an international furor. Hier and others charged that Waldheim was possibly connected with the execution of Yugoslav partisans and the deportation of Greek Jews or at least that he had knowledge of such war crimes as an aide to Gen. Alexander von Lohr, a convicted war criminal.

Waldheim has vigorously denied any guilt and said he has not deliberately attempted to conceal any wrongdoing.

In Athens, according to Reuters news agency, Greek Justice Minister Apostolos Kaklamanis said Tuesday that his government has no evidence that Waldheim was involved in war crimes in Greece. The minister, who said investigations have been carried out at the request of members of Greece’s small Jewish community, added that a number of files relating to alleged war crimes were destroyed several years ago.