Proof Against Waldheim Doubted by Jewish Official

A leading West German Jew was quoted Sunday as saying he doubts the existence of documents incriminating Austrian President Kurt Waldheim in Nazi atrocities during World War II.

Werner Nachmann, chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the newspaper Welt am Sonntag that he wants any such documents to be made public or the accusations brought to an end.

“The World Jewish Congress meets this Wednesday and Thursday in Budapest,” he told the paper in an interview. “I demand that all the documents should be put on the table.

“Up to now we have seen no solid proof. If the documents do not give proof of any evidence, then this campaign against Mr. Waldheim should stop immediately.

“Otherwise the only effect it will have will be to damage Jews,” Nachmann said.

The World Jewish Congress made many of the accusations, which surfaced last year, that Waldheim was involved in war crimes by the German army in the Balkans during the war.

Waldheim, a former U.N. secretary general who was elected president last year, has denied the allegations.

The U.S. Department of Justice last week banned Waldheim from entering the United States as a private citizen because of what it termed evidence that he took part in persecuting Jews and non-Jews during the war. Washington said that the action taken against Waldheim was directed at him personally, and not at him as Austrian chief of state or against Austria.

The issue, however, has not been confined to Waldheim. In Amsterdam, Orthodox Jews on Sunday boycotted the opening of a new Dutch Jewish museum to protest the presence of Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky.

Vranitzky, the only foreign government head invited, was asked to come because officials and companies in Austria contributed $200,000 to the $15-million museum project.

Leaders of Orthodox Jewish communities stayed away from the ceremony, saying Austria shared Germany’s guilt for the Holocaust and should not be linked with the museum.