Diplomacy Caught Up in His Past

By John Moody

"A man whom the world trusts." That is the campaign slogan being used by Kurt Waldheim, who became an international figure during ten years as United Nations Secretary-General, in his current campaign to become President of Austria. Last week the motto became an ironic taunt to Waldheim, who had been favored to win the May 4 election. Documents and photographs, apparently leaked by opponents, provided compelling evidence that Waldheim was a member of two Nazi organizations and served in a German army command responsible for the deportation of Greek Jews to death camps. Waldheim, 67, compounded his dilemma with a vague and unconvincing rebuttal. By week's end Waldheim had done irreparable damage to the reputation for cool diplomacy that he earned as head of the U.N. between 1972 and 1982.

Waldheim's army service record was obtained by the World Jewish Congress, which had been critical of anti-Israel resolutions passed at the U.N. during his tenure as Secretary-General. The incriminating records had been on file since the end of World War II, but apparently were overlooked. Eli Rosenbaum, the W.J.C. general counsel, saw their contents last month and shared the information with the New York Times, which printed the allegations last week.

The army service file, about 40 pages long, listed all organizations to which Waldheim belonged. It showed that in 1938 he joined the Nazi student union in Vienna and the Sturmabteilung (SA), a paramilitary organization better known as the Brownshirts. The file and photographs also placed Waldheim from 1942 to '44 in Yugoslavia and Greece, where he served on the staff of General Alexander Lohr, who was executed in 1947 for war crimes.

In 1938, when Adolf Hitler launched the Anschluss, or forced annexation of Austria with Germany, the 20-year-old Waldheim was studying at a Viennese academy for future diplomats. He recalled last week, "I took part in students' social activities which might perhaps have been construed as membership in the students' union."

He 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.

In a 1985 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 law.

The 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."

The most perplexing question about last week's revelations was why they had not come out earlier. During Austria's postwar occupation, the files were almost certainly available to the intelligence services of the victorious Allies, including the U.S. and the Soviet Union. After the war Waldheim held several sensitive positions, which required that he undergo background checks. He was Austrian Foreign Minister from 1968 to 1970, ran unsuccessfully for President in 1971, and in 1972 was nominated to the top post at the U.N. In 1980 the Central Intelligence Agency, in response to an inquiry from New York Congressman Stephen Solarz, said it had no evidence that Waldheim had been involved in anti-Jewish actions between 1939 and '41 but did not assess his later activities.

The W.J.C. refused to disclose how it learned about the records. Rosenbaum went to Vienna last Feb. 4, and on Feb. 10 sent a memo to W.J.C. President Edgar Bronfman that listed the political repercussions of exposing Waldheim's past. The memo was returned the same day with a two-word answer: "Do it," followed by Bronfman's initials.

One of Waldheim's unexpected supporters last week was Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal. Said he: "I think it is highly unlikely that Waldheim was ever a member of a Nazi organization." Wiesenthal said that he had never had evidence of Waldheim's Nazi activities. Of the alleged service under Lohr, Wiesenthal said, "It is hard to imagine that in his position Waldheim knew nothing at all."

Although Waldheim complained that the new allegations were being used against him in his current presidential campaign, some Austrians suspected that the controversy might create a back lash in his favor. By the weekend, new campaign leaflets, which read, "Now more than ever for Waldheim," were being distributed. More than half of the letters received by conservative newspapers expressed support for his candidacy. His reputation for forthrightness, however, seems unlikely to withstand the challenge.

With reporting by Gertraud Lessing/Vienna and Wayne Svoboda/ New York