The Sentinel, v.150 no. 01, 1947

              October 2, 1947
NAZIS FILL AUSTRIAN GOV'T. POSTS
AS DENAZIFICATION BOARDS CLOSE
By GUSTAV HERZOG
VIENNA-AFTER A LITTLE MORE THAN TWO YEARS OF AC-tivity,
the various de-nazification commissions in Austria have virtually closed
their books.
Startlingly enough, this does not mean that Nazis have been completely
eliminated from public and private positions. On the contrary, there is a ten-dency
today toward reinstating Nazis who were ousted from their jobs in the
last year or two.
There are a number of reasons for
this state of affairs, but probably the
foremost is a combination of attitudes
based on the great difficulties of finding
the right people for the jobs to be
done, and on the feeling that a peace-ful
future cannot be built upon a foun-dation
of hatred and persecution. This
latter point is frequently made even
by people who suffered horribly at the
hands of the Nazi during the Ansch-luss
days.
14.5 Percent Nazis
Of about 250,000 public employees in
Austria today, 14.5 percent are so-called
"small" Nazi-technicians, spec-ialists
and teachers for whom adequate
substitutes are hard to locate. High of-ficials
say the percentage may drop to
14 in the next few months, but they
forsee no improvement beyond that.
It has been frankly admitted to this
writer that there will probably be a
complete suspension of de-nazification
after the withdrawal of Allied occupa-tion
troops from Austria. It is already
true that the word "de-nazification"
has an entirely different meaning from
its original sense of cleansing or purg-ing.
Now it is most often taken to
mean that a person who was a member
of the Nazi party has been cleared
of any taint because of fact. In Gov-ernment
ministries, for example, this
affects de-nazification commissions by
influencing them always to examine
the lesser evil of reinstating a "minor"
Nazi before considering the greater
question of barring an expert who may
be hard to replace.
The tendency toward leniency stems
from several factors. Nearly every fam-ily,
including those of top officials, has
at least one former Nazi member and
there is inevitable favoring of relatives.
With the increase in feeling against
Communists and Russia, particularly in
the western zones, the former Nazis
have found a common platform with
"clean" citizens and often come to be
regarded as politically reliable. And,
right or wrong, the Austrian want to
end all kinds of political interrogation.
Many in Government
A check of Austrian Government
officials-none of them Communists-reveals
a fairly high percentage of
former Nazis still employed, though
many of them were "small" party fol-lowers.
The Finance Ministry's rolls
carry 12.9 percent, the Commerce
Ministry 9.6 percent, thse Transport,
the Transport Ministry 8.9 percent. In
only one case, the Electrification Min-istry,
are there no Nazis at all, and
that is because the Ministry was cre-ated
after the war.
It is noticeable that the proportion
of Nazis in public employment rises
at greater distances from Vienna. In
the Vorarlberg on the Swiss frontier,
the former Nazis number 39 percent
of the public workers and in the Tyrol
36 percent-both in the French zone.
In the British sectors of Carinthia and
Styria the percentages are 23 and 20.7.
In the United States zone of Upper
Austria and in Salzburg the proportions
run 16 and 15 percent. Lower Austria
in the Soviet Zone, lists 17 percent of
its public employees as former Nazi,
the Burgenland eight percent. And in
the four-power Vienna occupation area
the percentage is only seven and a half.
Explanation for these figures is said
to lie in the fact that thousands of
Nazi fled from Vienna as the Red Army
approached and took refuge at distant
points in the western regions, especial-ly
in the Voralberg and Tyrol, and are
now infiltrating into public positions.
Worse In Private Life
The situation is even worse in pri-vate
industry and the professions. The
Government has no control over the
situation unless said individual is per-sonally
denounced upon detailed evi-dence
by witnesses. There are specified
trades and occupations in which all
are compelled to register. . Such was
the case with doctors in Vienna, and
1,300 did register. But American of-ficials
who checked the matter said
the number was far too low, since there
were 3,500 doctors known to be prac-ticing
in the capital.
In another case Austrian authori-ties
ordered all former Nazis holding
forbidden positions to register. About
13,000 did so. Officials asserted the
number should have been "at least"
18,000. Only 108 "big" Nazis admitted
holding leading positions in private en-terprises,
and 29 "small" Nazis were
open about their records. Little can
be done about the rest. The sword
hangs over them but will never fall.
One high official in the Government
privately expresses his opinion that Aus-tria's
greatest mistake was in not hang-ing
10,000 in 1945. Had this been done,
he says, the other half million Nazis
could be disregarded. While he does
not advocate bloody revenge and the
perpetuation of hate, this official firm-ly
believes that demonstrated determi-nation
to invoke the highest penalty
would have rendered the surviving fol-lowers
of Adolf Hitler powerless and
fear-ridden. As it is, he concludes, the
Nazi in Austria today have no feeling
of fear or fault. In fact, they are prob-ably
still inclined to think Hitler was
right.
Dr. Chaim Weizmann Confers
With British Officials
Jerusalem, (JTA)-Dr. Claim Weiz-mann,
who is now in London, is con-ducting
important negotiations with
top officials of the British Government
in connection with the future of Pal-estine,
it was learned here. It was re-ported
that Palestine High Commis-sioner
Sir Alan G. Cuningham and Lt.
General Gordon H. A. Macmillan, the
civil and military commanders of Pal-estine,
are participating in the meet-ing.
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