CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Goode, Carlie |
|---|---|
| Title | The Victim's Mantle: Foundations of Austria's First Victim Theory and the Waldheim Affair in the Quadripartite Occupation of 1945-1955 |
| Summary | The world press was astounded in 1986 when Austrian Presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim, ten-year chief of the United Nations, was accused mid-campaign of involvement with the Nazi SA. Even more astonishing was the rallying of his generation around him as the evidence became irrefutable, resulting in a decisive win. How had Austria created a foundational myth on being ‘the First Victim of Nazi Aggression,’ only to contradict itself so fundamentally 40 years later? From 1945 until about 1988, Austria had styled itself a victim rather than perpetrator of the Nazi regime, a stance which its post-war occupiers had allowed. While this victim stance was geopolitically convenient in allowing Austria to escape the reparations and international condemnation that beleaguered (West) Germany, it is based on a historic untruth. In 1938 many Austrians welcomed the German annexation and served enthusiastically as part of the Reich and Holocaust. Critically, the suffering Austrians remember is a consequence of the Nazis losing the war, not of the Nazis themselves, and precious few Austrians were active resistors. This victim myth becoming the banner of Austria’s wartime memory was due to political opportunism in the critical memory-making years of 1945-1948. Using a little viewed archival collection, I document the rise of this myth, its promulgation by Austria’s liberators, and being enthusiastically carried by the Austrian postwar government, to become a founding narrative of the Second Republic. |
| Supervisor | Iordachi, Constantin. Shaw, Charles. |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/goode_carlie.pdf |
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