Word: waldheim
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...beleaguered Waldheim rejected the allegations as "pure lies and malicious acts." He later admitted, however, that he was aware of German reprisals against the partisans: "Yes, I knew. I was horrified. But what could I do? I had either to continue to serve or be executed." He said he never fired a shot or even saw a partisan. Indeed, his immediate superior at the time, former Lieut. Colonel Herbert Warnstorff, said last week that Waldheim "remained confined to a desk" during his tour. As for the medal he received, military historians support Waldheim's contention that it was given...
...also said he rode horses with members of the Brownshirts, "and by mere inference my name could have been entered on a list of SA members." Shortly after war broke out on Sept. 1, 1939, Waldheim was drafted into a cavalry unit. In December 1941 he was seriously wounded on the Eastern Front by shell splinters and was transferred to Vienna...
...autobiography, Waldheim noted: "To my undisguised relief I was discharged from further service at the front" in March 1942, and implied that he spent the rest of the war studying...
...record, however, indicates that Waldheim returned to active service. He was sent to Salonika, Greece, as a staff officer and translator under Lohr, the German general responsible for Greece, as well as for Serbia and Croatia. During the period Waldheim served on his staff, Lohr is said to have directed the repression of Yugoslav partisans and the deportation of 40,830 Greek Jews to death camps...
When confronted with the records last week, Waldheim replied, "I hear for the first time (now) that there were deportations of Jews from Greece." Countered Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai B'rith: "If he did not know what was going on . . . he was probably the world's most incompetent bureaucrat. If he knew, he is a liar...