Ludwig Wittgenstein once remarked, "I think the good in Austria is
particularly difficult to understand. In a certain sense it is more
subtle than all the rest, and its truth is never on the side of
probability." For forty years official Austria, christened by the
Allies as Hitler's first "victim," wagered that the sedulously
cultivated visions of cherubic choir boys, Lippizaner horses, and
Mozartkugels could seduce the world into ignoring another truth
about Austria, that of Wehrmacht soldiers, antisemitic slurs, and
cheering crowds on Heldenplatz. The debate surrounding Kurt
Waldheim dashed such "improbable" illusions permanently. Richard
Mitten seeks to discover the "truth" behind the Waldheim
controversy in its historical and political context. Whereas other
books have focused on Waldheim's personal biography, Mitten argues
that the essential point in the Waldheim affair is not Waldheim
himself but the political and cultural climate that made his
election possible. Mitten examines Waldheim's 1986 presidential
election campaign, which both elicited and profited from profound
chauvinistic and antisemitic resentments. The Politics of
Antisemitic Prejudice is also the first book in English to study
the dynamics of the Waldheim affair in the Austrian and American
media. The author demonstrates how mistaken perceptions led both
Waldheim's supporters and his critics to press their nearly
diametrically opposed convictions with an identical moral
vocabulary. Finally, Mitten re-examines the debate over Waldheim's
criminality and suggests that the former UN Secretary General has
come to stand as the symbol of a more general postwar unwillingness
or inability to adequately confront the implications of the Nazi
abomination.
General
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