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PAGE 2 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE April II, 1986
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New reports say Waldheim
Treatment 1 was aware of deportations
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VIENNA (JTA)—It was nearly
impossible for Austrian presiden
tial candidate Kurt Waldheim to
have not known about the depor
tation of thousands of Greek Jews
from Salonika when he was based
near that city as a Wehrmacht
officer during World War II, two
Austrian news publications charged
Monday.
Further, both the Socialist daily
Neue A.Z. and the weekly news
magazine Profit published reports
which are said to link Waldheim’s
Nazi military unit, Abteilung 1C of
Heeresgruppe E, to later deporta
tions of Greek Jews from the Ae
gean Islands.
The reports are part of the
mounting allegations against the
former United Nations secretary
general asserting that he had lied
about his past war-time activities.
The conservative presidential can
didate has vehemently denied the
charges and said in a weekend
interview that the defamatory cam
paign against him has finally col
lapsed.
Neue A.Z. and Profit both said,
based on research in Greece, that it
was impossible for Waldheim to have
The Atlanta Jewish National Fund
Proudly Announces Its
1 986 Dinner
honoring
Two Distinguished Atlanta Journalists
Vida Goldgar
Publisher, Southern Israelite
Durwood McAlister
Editorial Page Editor,
The Atlanta Journal
Recipients of the Theodor Herzl Award for their contri
butions to the people of Atlanta and their support of the
state of Israel.
Tuesday, April 15th
Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel
Guest Speaker:
Martin Agronsky
Television Commentator/Newsman
Tickets: $75.00 Per Person
For tickets or additional information,
contact the JNF Office at 633-11 32
All proceeds and additional contributions will go towards the establishment of a
Durwood McAlister and Vida Goldgar Project in the American Bicentennial Park
in Israel.
Ad agency drops Waldheim
NEW YORK (JTA)—Young & Rubicam, one of the nation’s
largest advertising agencies, announced that it has canceled a
six-month old contract with Austrian presidential candidate Kurt
Waldheim, apparently because of the continuing controversy
regarding Waldheim’s alleged war-time activities.
“The allegations concerning the war-time activities of Kurt
Waldheim have led us to resign this account,” the agency said in a
statement issued here. Waldheim, the former UN Secretary Gen
eral, has vehemently denied the allegations.
known nothing of the ghettos and
transports. The publications re
porters had questioned local wit
nesses in Salonika and in the small
nearby village of Arsaki, where the
staff headquarters of Heeresgruppe
E was situated during the war.
“It was impossible that he did
not know anything,” said Leon
Benmajor, the 70-year-old presi
dent of the tiny Jewish community
of Salonika. Another woman, Hella
Kunjo, an 80-year-old Karlsbad
resident married to a Greek Jew,
added: “He must be crazy."
The deportation of almost
50,000 Jews from Salonika was a
major operation. At least one-
fourth of the population of that
Greek town was first forced to
wear the large yellow Star of
David, then rounded up in ghettos,
moved to a central camp, and then
in railroad cars to the concentra
tion camps of Auschwitz, Birke-
nau and Bergen-Belsen.
According to the reports, this
completely changed the character
of Salonika, where the Jewish pop
ulation had not lived in secluded
quarters but was spread all over
the town. After the deportations,
shops, stores and offices in the
town were deserted, and trade
almost broke down.
Waldheim has always contend
ed that he had not known anything
about those deportations until ear
lier this year when his unit was
connected with them in the media.
He argued that the headquarters
where he served on the staff of
Gen. Alexander Loehr had been
off in the mountains, and he had
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been unable to take notice of any
thing.
The two Austrian reporters
found that the staff building was
situated well above Salonika with
a scenic view of the city and no
obstacles in between. Large trans
ports must have been visible from
the headquarters structure, they
argued in the reports.
Inhabitants of Arsaki, which has
been renamed Panorama, told the
reporters that since not very many
of them were willing to work for
the Germans, townspeople would
come up to do the cooking and
cleaning They must have reported
about the goings-on down there,
they added.
Another witness, who was
quoted in both the Profil and Neue
A.Z. reports, was a Greek collabora
tor with the Germans who is still
not accepted among the local pop
ulation. Asked whether the Ger
man officers, whom he described
as noble and educated men, had
known something about the depor
tations, he said. “Of course they
knew. Every small child would
know, every dog, every cat.”
Local newspapers at that time
also mentioned the deportations.
The Greek paper. New Europe,
wrote, “Finally the cleaning has
begun. Since yesterday the Jews
are leaving our town. They were
our enemies, and this we do not
mind. No one minds if he gets rid
of an enemy or of a disease.”
The news publications also said
that while Waldheim’s unit was not
directly involved in the deporta
tions from Salonika, it had been
directly informed about the action
by Adolf Eichmann. According to
Neue A.Z. and Profil, Eichmann was
in Salonika in February 1943 to
give orders for the deportations.
At the meeting, an officer from
Abteilung 1C was present, the pub
lications said.
Despite not having played a role
in the deportation of Jews from
Salonika, Waldheim’s unit is al
leged to have played a role in the
deportation of Jews from the Aegean
Islands in 1944. Both publications
quoted military documents released
in Freiburg, West Germany, where
the East Aegean commander ordered
the Heeresgruppe E to begin the
deportation of all Jews who had no
Turkish citizenship.
It was Waldheim’s task to deal
with such reports, Profil charged.
Neither Waldheim nor Herbert Warn-
storff, who, as lieutenant colonel
was then the commanding officer
of Abteilung 1C, remember those
reports.