Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal
Center today renewed its call for the resignation of Tyrol governor
Herwig Van Staa in the wake of his attempts yesterday to falsify
the Nazi past of former Innsbruck deputy mayor Ferdinand Obenfeldner.
(Late last week, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Israel director
Dr. Efraim Zuroff had called for Van Staa’s resignation following
revelations that he and other local political leaders had celebrated
Obenfeldner 90th birthday despite his wartime past as a Gestapo
operative in Innsbruck.)
According to press reports, Van Staa yesterday defended his links
to the former deputy mayor by claiming that Obenfeldner had “never
served in the Gestapo or lied regarding his biography,” in total
contradiction to all available historical documentation. Zuroff
called Van Staa’s statements, as reported by the Austrian media, “absolutely
shocking and incomprehensible,” and sufficient basis for his immediate
resignation.
According to Zuroff:
“Perhaps in Austria, which continues to this day to serve as a haven for Nazi
war criminals such as Milivoj Ašner and Erna Wallisch, it is acceptable practice
for political leaders to cover up the Nazi past of their colleagues, but we find
such behavior exceptionally reprehensible. Van Staa’s fabrications cannot erase
the fact that Obenfeldner was a Gestapo operative who took part in the anti-Jewish
operation in Innsbruck on Kristallnacht, that he was a member of the SS, and
served in a Wehrmacht unit which participated in heinous war crimes in Greece
and Italy. If Van Staa thinks that such a record is praiseworthy, he obviously
does not deserve to wield political power.”
For more information call 00-972-50-7214156
|