This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer
Survivors of the concentration camp Ebensee were shot at and abused as they gathered to remember their liberation on May 10th. Masked neo-Nazi thugs screamed ‘Heil Hitler!’ and ‘This way for the gas!’ at ten elderly Italian men and women, who returned to the site of the concentration camp in Austria. The gang also fired air guns at a group of 15 French survivors, many dressed in the striped pyjama-style uniforms they wore as inmates. One suffered a head wound while another was injured by a shot in the neck. Some of the young neo-Nazi perpetrators are now in custody awaiting trial.
The immediate reaction in Austria was to downplay the incident as a mere “provocation” and some of the leaders of FPÖ are already worried that the youngsters could be punished “disproportionately”.
This was just one of the incidents which have been reported this month. Here is another.
Some pupils of a Viennese grammar school who were on a trip to Auschwitz had to be sent back because of their antisemitic remarks and what is worse, the teachers conducting the group remained silent.
Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger expressed his shock over the incident during the commemorations in Ebensee, and said:
“Such provocations are unbearable and must not be tolerated. I unreservedly condemn this”.
The foreign minister, who was at the time in New York was of course worried about the “damage [to] Austria’s international reputation” that “cast a shadow on Austria as a tourist destination.”
The reactions to such aggressions and antisemitic incitement are usually very low key in Austria. However the conservative Vienna daily “Die Presse”, which belongs to a company owned by the Catholic Church does not this general attitude. On Sunday May 17, it published an interview with Dr. Ariel Muzicant, President of the Jewish community in Austria. According to Ariel Muzicant in Austria rightwing extremism is advancing and the leadership of Austrian Freedom party (FPÖ) is preparing “systematically” the ground for it.
“Even under Jörg Haider there was not such a gathering of extreme right wing functionaries as today under Heinz-Christian Strache, Graf and Mölzer. They encourage the right wing extremism in their own ranks and want to make it systematically socially acceptable.”
In his interview Muzicant deplored the election of Martin Graf as the third president of Austrian parliament:
“That the whole [conservative) ÖVP and parts of the (social-democratic) SPÖ voted for Mr. Graf was one of those breaches in a dyke, for which we now get the bill.”
Muzicant believes that without this election the incident would not have happened in Ebensee.
“In Austria there is no danger of left wing extremism, I see the danger from right”.
Muzicant is in agreement with Michael Häupl social-democratic mayor of Vienna, who compared the methods of the FPÖ with the methods used by the Nazis.
“When I hear Mr.[Herbert] Kickl (secretary general of FPÖ) this reminds me of the incitement and the language of Joseph Goebbels.”
Today (Monday, May 18, 09) Der Standard the left-liberal Vienna daily published an interview with Werner Faymann, social-democratic chancellor of Austria. Faymann who until today didn’t react to the recent antisemitic incidents. In his interview he accuses HC Strache, leader of the FPÖ of being a “hate-preacher”. His angry reaction came in wake of a whole page ad of HC Strache und A. Mölzer in the Vienna daily “Neue Kronenzeitung” which is campaiginng taking a stand against not just Turkey, but also Israel, joining the European Union.
As Faymann points out:
“To name Israel is absolutely absurd. Israel is not at all a candidate to join. There is not even a procedure for joining. The only cause to name Israel is to satisfy antisemitic prejudices. That is a shame. […] I deplore this instigation sharply.”
Better late than never.
