Waldheim Visits ‘Place of Horror’--Nazi Death Camp
Austrian President Kurt Waldheim on Friday visited a former Nazi concentration camp, saying that he had a “sincere need to visit this place of horror.”
A handful of demonstrators carrying a banner reading “We Want an Anti-fascist as President” were on hand for the arrival of the 68-year-old former U.N. secretary general.
Waldheim, who rejects charges by the World Jewish Congress that he was involved in war crimes while serving in the German army between 1942 and 1945, laid a wreath commemorating 200,000 people who died at the camp near Linz.
“I personally had a sincere need to visit this place of horror,” Waldheim told a radio interviewer. “I feel deeply for the descendants of these victims, and I believe it is our duty to ensure that such a tragedy will never be repeated.”
Waldheim earlier told a news conference in Linz that he had always expressed his sorrow for the Jewish people’s fate.
He said he believed that those who repeatedly protested at his public appearances since he was elected 18 months ago represented a small but articulate minority.
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