Austria
In response to your editorial “A Historic Act of Political Courage,” July 19:
For the sake of historical truthfulness I would like to point out that the referendum of April 10, 1938, took place under the totalitarian Nazi regime. Nazi Germany invaded Austria to prevent a free referendum that the government had announced would take place. The results are therefore quite comparable to not-too-distant-past election results in communist countries.
One should not forget that in the first weeks of the occupation, 80,000 Austrians were jailed--among them the whole political leadership. Under Nazi rule 65,000 Austrians lost their lives for reasons of race and 35,000 for political reasons.
The point is that Austria was not only victim and perpetrator, but victim and perpetrator both.
CHRISTIAN PROSL
Austrian Consul General
Los Angeles
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