All language subtitles for The.Waldheim.Waltz.2018.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-KamiKaze

[Waldheim] As the Secretary
General of the United Nations,

an organization of
147 member states,

who represent almost all of the human inhabitants of the planet...

[man] With the interests of the
United Nations only in view.

With the interests of the
United Nations only in view.

Good night.

[man] From ABC,
this isWorld News Tonight.

Good evening, we begin this
evening with revelations

about one of the world'’s most
influential international civil
servants during the 1970'’s.

The New York Timesreported
today that Kurt Waldheim,

the former Secretary General
of the United Nations,

was attached to a German army
command during World War II

which engaged in mass
deportation of Greek Jews.

The Timesalso reports that
Mr. Waldheim,
who is an Austrian,

and presently a candidate for
the presidency of Austria,

was enrolled as a youth in two
Nazi Party organizations.

A: he was a Nazi.

B: he'’s a liar, and
C: he was present at places
where war crimes were committed.

Which he denied until yesterday.

...and ultimately you were
drafted into the German Army.

That'’s correct, yes, uh...

It'’s a strange situation.

I think people here on this side
of the Atlantic don'’t always
understand this.

The two sons, I have a brother
and a sister, the two sons were
drafted.

Then that was the system,

and if you refused, well,
there was no choice,

you would have been killed.
And...

[reporter] So you found yourself
fighting for a cause

-Well...
-...that you opposed.

Exactly, but fortunately for a
very limited time because uh...

I was wounded very soon, then I
was dismissed from the army,

and could continue my studies.
You mentioned the interruption.

[Reporter] Did you have your own
objection to covering your head?

Well, I think it had nothing to
do with covering the head.

The important thing is to show a
devotion and an admiration
for...

these people who have
suffered so much.

And I want to make it
very clear,

I have deep admiration
for these people,

and for their suffering.

[man] Are we ready to begin?

[reporters clamoring]

Israel, as in Israel Singer...

Secretary General,
World Jewish Congress.

[reporter] Excuse me, sir,
could you repeat...

[reporters clamoring]

I'’ll go through
the introductions quickly
three or four times.

[reporters] Down in front!
Down in front!

-Don'’t panic...
-[reporter] There you go.

-[reporter 1] Now panic.
-[reporter 2] Now panic.

The individual at the center is
Israel Singer,

he'’s Secretary General of
The World Jewish Congress.

[reporter] Slowly,
one more time.

Israel Singer,
Secretary General.

Not of the UN.

My name is Elan Steinberg,

I'’m the executive director
of the congress.

To my extreme right
is Eli Rosenbaum,

General Counsel.

Of the World Jewish Congress.

Of the World Jewish Congress.

Professor Herzstein, perhaps you
should introduce yourself at the
time you prefer.

-Robert Herzstein...
-[reporter] Into the mic.

Robert Herzstein, professor of
history at the University of
South Carolina.

[reporter] Spell your
last name please.

H-E-R-Z-S-T-E-I-N.

[reporter] Can you close
that back door?

-[reporter] History professor?
-History professor.
That is correct.

The witness that Waldheim
bears against itself...

I would like to outline for you
now in several minutes,

with documents,
signed by himself.

Kurt Waldheim has told us that
during the last three years of
the war,

he was studying in Vienna,
and courting and marrying his
wife.

In fact, most of his time was
devoted to military assignments
in the Balkans.

During these years,
he participated

in the notorious Kozara Mountain
Action in Yugoslavia,

where thousands of people
were massacred.

For his role, he was cited and
decorated, as you heard before.

He participated in a conference
related to Operation Black
in 1943.

A gory operation carried out
against partisans and civilians

in the region east and north
of Podgorica.

In both of these actions,
numerous atrocities were
committed by the Nazi'’s.

After the Black Action, Waldheim
became an important intelligence
officer,

ultimately being put in sole
charge of Unit 03 of
intelligence responsible for,

"Special tasks",

and for prisoner interrogation
among other things.

In this capacity, he was deeply
involved in the process

that included torture and
execution of prisoners,
many of them civilians.

He signed off on numerous staff
reports at the highest command
level

of his huge army group, which
reflect his involvement of,
and knowledge of,

these operations.

These are some recent findings
based on the research of our
scholar.

[all chanting]
Nazis out of the UN now!

Nazis out of the UN now!

Nazis out of the UN now!

Nazis out of the UN now!

As we convene here,

across the street from us,
in that building over there,

there is the UN War Crime
Commission Archives,

in which former Secretary
General of the United Nations,
Kurt Waldheim,

is listed as suspect #79-724.

Within that file, there are
evidence that lead us to believe

that he is wanted
for war crimes.

Even as incriminating evidence
are being accumulated against
him,

the UN has taken no action.

It continues to refuse to
investigative agencies
any access to the files.

What are they trying to hide?

I urge you Mr. Secretary
General, open up the files.

Let the truth be known about
Kurt Waldheim.

...received was was tantamount
to a hero'’s welcome.

To say that we are devastated...

There is no attack on Austria.

There is clearly
a question about Waldheim,

and that is a question that
Austria might ask itself if it
chooses to.

We have a question
of a person

who wants to hide the total
truth of his career

for the sake of his career.

His picture hangs
in the United Nations,

along with some of the greatest
men and the greatest fighters
for human rights.

The question is, should he hang
together with Trygve Lie?

Should he hang there together
with people like
Dag Hammarskjoöld,

who fought for human rights,

and who fought against the
horrors that occurred during
World War II.

Should he symbolize
the United Nations forever?

For 10 years, for 25% of the
United Nations history,
or should he not?

We, as the premier Jewish NGO
organization at the United
Nations,

consider this very,
very important.

We consider it
something very serious,

maybe you don'’t, but we do.

Prior to a month and half ago,
nobody knew Waldheim was in
The Balkans.

Nobody knew he was on the staff
of General Loöhr.

Once we knew he was
on the staff of General Loöhr,

it was more a matter of
following General Loöhr around.

And when we did, we found that
Kurt Waldheim'’s name popped up
again and again.

He popped up at some of the
worst places,
at the worst times,

during some of the worst
atrocities in The Balkans.

Uh... we do know that, uh,
he has, uh, lied.

Not only to the world, but in
particular to the
United States Congress.

Now, let me, if you'’d like,
show you something here

which is not really
been made public before.

I had written to
Mr. Waldheim in 1980,

Uh... in order to get his
response to allegations

that had been made in American
magazines about his war record.

And in the letter I sent him,
I asked him three questions.

I asked him whether he was a
member, and if so, was he active
in the Nazi Youth Movement.

He responded to that question by
denying any involvement with
the Nazi Youth Movement.

Secondly, I asked him if it was
true that his family was evicted
from its home

when his father
was in prison during the war.

And he responded to that
question as well,

by indicating that his father
was arrested after the
Anschluss,

and that his family was harassed
by the Nazis.

But then I asked him
another question.

I asked him, "What are the names
and numbers

of the units you served with
during the years 1939-1945?

What were your specific
responsibilities as an officer
within these units?

Were there extermination teams
attached to these units?"

I think it'’s very interesting
that Mr. Waldheim did not
respond

to those particular questions.

What he did do was to say that
he served with a particular
unit, which he mentioned,

that was assigned to
the Eastern Front,

but that he was wounded on
the Eastern Front in 1941,

and incapacitated for further
service on the front.

And then he indicated he resumed
his studies at the Vienna
University Law School in 1944,

and he ended the letter.

By indicating the name of the
unit in which he had served on
the Eastern Front in 1941,

but not any of the other units
in which he subsequently served,

he was clearly trying
to leave the impression

that his military
service ended in 1941.

If he had responded to the
letter truthfully,

he would have indicated the
names and numbers

of the subsequent units
in which he served in the
Balkans under General Loöhr,

who, as you know, was convicted
of war crimes himself.

So, I have to ask myself,
why is it that Mr. Waldheim

answered all of the questions
in the letter

except the last set of questions
about the units in which he
served.

And I think it'’s fairly clear.

He didn'’t respond
because he was concerned

that if he did provide the
precise information I asked for,

that researchers might then be
able to uncover his association

in some potentially
unsavory activities.

I can only repeat that this
was a very tough military
confrontation.

-[interviewer] Look...
-You are talking,

you are talking about the
suffering of the partisans,

which I deeply regret.

-It was a real tragedy.
-I'’m not talking about

-tough fighting.
-But you never mentioned,

-you never mentioned,
-I'’m not talking
about fighting.

I'’m talking about reprisals.

The German forces
[slams fist]

had also their casualties.

They had thousands and thousands
of casualties of Germans.

So, please be
a little more objective.

I deeply regret
the way this war took place.

But, I want to
state clearly that...

First, I wasn'’t involved
in this cruel warfare,

and secondly, that casualties
were on both sides.

[interviewer] You describe
yourself as a strong anti-Nazi.

You'’ve been a
champion of human rights,

and yet, are we to believe
that you made not the slightest
effort after the war

to find out what the effect on
the local population where you
had served had been

of the Nazi war machine.

Look, I was faced with so many
problems before I became
secretary general.

During my period as secretary
general, I was very busy with so
many things.

And for me, there was no special
reason why I should look into
something which I hadn'’t known.

We have a picture of the front
page of the only German-language
newspaper

published in The Balkans
showing 12,000 Jews

in the main square
being deported

as persons who were financially
criminally oriented. All Jews.

Every dog in Salonika
knew what was going on.

It'’s surprising that
Mr. Waldheim didn'’t read
his own intelligence reports,

and his own newspaper.

[reporter] Dr. Waldheim and the other staff officers of Army Group E,

were based at the Villa Heitman in the village of Arsakli, four kilometers from Salonika.

But although he was to become
an intelligence officer,

processing information from all over Greece,

Dr. Waldheim failed to spot the deportation of a quarter of Salonika'’s population,

and says he only
heard about it this year.

[reporter] Although there'’d been
five trainloads in March,

before Dr. Waldheim
returned from leave,

there were nine trainloads
in April,

another two in May,
one more in June,
and finally two in August.

...because my brother was
neither a Nazi nor a war
criminal,

and has repeatedly expressed his
compassion and his uh...

sadness about the things
that had happened in the war.

We don'’t understand
what is going on here.

[man] The purpose of this
hearing is to conduct a
responsible public inquiry

into accusations made by
the World Jewish Congress

that Dr. Waldheim covered up his
past affiliation with Nazi
organizations,

and that he may have been
involved in war crimes.

[man] Uh... Congressman Solarz,
based on your findings and
observations,

can you state categorically
that Dr. Kurt Waldheim

is guilty of having
committed Nazi war crimes?

No. And I didn'’t suggest that,
Mr. Chairman, in my testimony.

What I did say, is that I can
state categorically,

that Mr. Waldheim misled me in
his private letter to me six
years ago.

I can state categorically
that he has offered

a series of
changing explanations

for his war record.

And that therefore, his
credibility is very much in
question.

I can also state categorically
that there are serious
accusations

which have been
made against him

on the basis of his alleged
participation in war crimes.

But I cannot state categorically
that he actually engaged in
those crimes, or committed them,

because that is yet
to be determined

before an appropriate
tribunal.

We are not dealing with the
question of whether a person

lied about a specific event.

What we are dealing with
is the denial

by the highest official
of the United Nations,

for a long period of time,

of a denial of a central fact of
a whole epoch in history.

And to debate in fact whether
Kurt Waldheim...

as an officer...

directly working under a general
who was hanged for war crimes,

knew about the Holocaust...

to my mind is an absurd debate.

Of course he did.

[Lantos] Mr. Waldheim, what is
your explanation

for that long period following
your father'’s service in the
Soviet Front,

when he does not discuss at all
his service in The Balkans?

We discussed this
at great length.

-I uh...
-Well I'’m sorry, I wasn'’t here,

-I'’m asking...
-I'’m sorry, no, with my father.

I apologize. I discussed it with
my father at great length

because surely this was a point
that moved me very much.

Um... I do know,
from my boyhood,

that my father was never a man
of very many words,

and that he never spoke very
much about himself,

and that he despised
and loathed the war.

I, as a son, was never capable
of getting him to tell me

any tall war stories, as for
example, I would receive from
his brother,

who was of a
very different personality.

I spoke to my uncle very
frequently about my father,

and I said, "But why doesn'’t
Daddy talk about these things?"

He said, "Very clearly, your
father hated the war.

He saw it coming, and he just
was very, very concerned..."

[Lantos] But I don'’t think
that'’s the issue here at all.

He has no reluctance to talk
about his war experience in the
Soviet Front.

I mean, to the naked eye,
and to the rational mind,

his clear attempt
at deception and cover-up

is perfectly
apparent.

As a matter of fact,
Ambassador Gruber,

in his very protective
testimony, indicated that he too

cannot explain this,
and is deeply disturbed by this.

I want you to understand,
as I told you earlier,

that our great sympathy for you
for standing up for your father.

I think this is admirable, this
is proper, this is to be
respected.

But I don'’t think you do him a
service by trying

to defend items which on the
face are non-defensible.

He wrote an autobiography, and
in the autobiography, he left
out

several key years of his life.

During the course of which,
he clearly was implicated,

at least by presence,

in some heinous crimes.

What is your view of this?

No, I would like Mr. Waldheim to
answer this, and then if you'’d
like to comment, Mr. Ambassador,

you'’re free to do so.

If I may, sir, I would just like
to say my very personal opinion.

I do know that in
this biography,

my father concentrated on those
things that were of importance
to him... in his memories.

He did not touch upon other
parts of the war that he served
on either.

He was in the French Campaign,
he was in the Sudetenland
Campaign.

In both,
he did not see combat duty.

He touched very strongly on the
Russian part, and that
was publicly known,

because that was the only time
that he served in combat,

was injured, and had a number of
traumatic experiences.

I personally asked my father in
our conversations whether it is
possible that part of the

reason why he did not talk about
The Balkans themselves is
because

after this experience in Russia,

the only thing that was of
relevance to him

was to finish his studies,
to stay alive,

and to prepare for the time
after the war.

And he said that he felt...

[Lantos] Are you suggesting that
as 6 million people were
butchered

and sent to the extermination
camp, the only thing that
mattered to him

was to finish his legal studies?

And he was oblivious and
non-caring that this was going
on.

It defies the rational mind,
it defies logic,

it defies ordinary human
comprehension

for you to expect that we
swallow this.

I mean what was going on there
in 1942, '’43, and '’44, were of
no consequence to him,

that'’s what you'’re saying?

-No...
-[Lantos] He so isolated

himself that he didn'’t know
those things were going on?

And if he did, he didn'’t care,
because he was preoccupied with
completing his legal studies.

Is that your testimony?

He certainly has said

that he was aware
that the war as it went on

became more and more brutal,
and that atrocities
were going on.

The only statement that he made
was in the very first statement
in The New York Times

that he had not been aware,
when he was asked by the
journalist, Mr. Tagliabue,

I believe was the name,

he had not been aware that there
had been deportations from
Salonika.

And the sequence of events is
very sad because that statement
is being held against him.

We now know why he couldn'’t have
known about them because he
physically was absent

for the totality of before those
events began until after they
were over.

He was absent from the middle of
November 1942, to the beginning
of July 1943.

[Lantos] And do you think it'’s
plausible that when he came back

he did not notice that a third
of the population of the town
was gone?

Do you think it'’s plausible that
nobody told him what happened?

I asked him that same question,
he says, "But what would I have
to gain

by not admitting it
if I had known?"

[Lantos] Well, I don'’t know he
has to answer, you know?

He has to answer some questions
that people are asking

because his credibility has been
totally shattered.

Now, I would think...

that you would do him more
useful service...

by counseling to admit to some
of these very serious mistakes,

rather than pretending,
because no one else believes it.

If you believe it, you and your
father are the only two people
who believe it.

No one else believes that a man
of his intelligence,
his education,

writes an autobiography and
pretends that three years there,

critical crucial years,
did not exist.

You need to understand
that your father was not

the only person who lived in
Europe during that period.

There were several others,
including myself, who lived
there,

and who knew what was happening,

who have conversations with
people about what was happening.

This was not an isolated event,

this is not like a movie that
you choose not to see.

This was the central fact of
life in The Balkans.

This was the
pivotal development.

This was the focus of activity.

And to say that he was too busy
with his legal studies in
Vienna,

it boggles the mind that
you would think,
and he would think,

that anybody believes it.

When Senator Moynihan says that
your father is a liar,

he speaks for
the American people.

The American people feel your
father is a liar.

They know he'’s a liar.

It is indeed befitting,
Mr. President,

that the United Nations,

which began its life as an
anti-Nazi alliance,

should thirty years later find
itself on its way

to becoming the world'’s
center of antisemitism.

Hitler would have felt at home
on a number of occasions

during the past year listening
to the proceedings in this
forum,

and above all through the
proceedings during the debate
on Zionism.

For us, the Jewish people,

this resolution based on hatred,
falsehood, and arrogance,

is devoid of any
moral or legal value.

For us, the Jewish people,

this is no more than a piece of
paper, and we shall treat it as
such.

Thank you, Mr. President,

A run-off could spell trouble
for Kurt Waldheim,

much of his wartime past has
emerged during the past five
weeks.

And Austrian voters will now
have another five weeks

to consider the implications
of those revelations.

[man] The time has come to blow
the whistle on Kurt Waldheim.

[whistles blow]

No foreign government...

Well, first of all, he
hasn'’t yet been elected.

That is of course, a matter for
the people of Austria to decide
for themselves.

If he does get elected, and his
name is on the watch list,

he will be the one chief of
state in the entire world

ranging from Kim IL-Sung
to Fidel Castro,

who is not eligible to come to
the United States.

If he'’s not put on the watch
list, then of course he'’ll be
free to come here.

All time having expired.

The question is, will the House
suspend the rules and agree

to House resolution...

Mr. Chairman, I thank the
gentleman from Kentucky for
yielding me this time,

and I thank the sub-committee
for moving so rapidly on this.

I think there'’s a real reason
that we need to speak on this
now.

That is, we have always said
that this is a government of
laws,

and not of men.

That all laws will
be applied equally to men,

that we will not waive if we
find the facts to fit Mr.
Waldheim.

If we find that the facts fit
him, then he goes
on the watch list

whether he is citizen Waldheim,
or he is head of the government
of Austria.

Because our government does not
believe in making those
distinctions.

Everybody must comply.

We put the watch laws into
effect in this country

because we believe that what
happened in World War II were so
horrendous,

so horrendous,
that there is no defense.

And we never never
want to see it happen again.

And the defense to it cannot be
what you would call
"Waldheimers" disease,

"I don'’t remember".

You can'’t do that, Mr. Waldheim.

You have to remember,
you have to tell us
what the facts are,

and then we see
if that meets the law.

The whole country of Austria
can'’t play that game either.

I think we'’ve always counted on
them as strong allies,

we want them to
remain strong allies,

but we certainly want them to
know that there is no way in the
world

that the United States is ever
going to back-up on its pledge
to the free world.

That we will never allow what
happened in World War II to
happen again.

And anybody who had any part of
it can'’t say that they forgot,

and therefore,
they can start over.

[Utley] For Hubertus Czernin,
who published the first
Waldheim document

in an Austrian news-magazine,
that, is no surprise.

He represents the Austrian
country, and it'’s very sad to
say that, perfectly.

He'’s the man who says,
"let the past be past."

He says, "I'’ve got Jewish
friends and it'’s fine."

He is the real Austrian.

He'’s the perfect president for Austria, but it'’s a shame.

[Utley] Garrick Utley,
NBC news, Vienna.