New Charges of Nazi Past Leveled at Waldheim; ‘Nonsense,’ He Says

The World Jewish Congress released new documents Tuesday, which it says prove that former U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim was a senior Nazi intelligence officer who was involved in brutal interrogations as well as the massacre of Yugoslav partisans.

The group charged in New York that Waldheim was not a mere translator and staff officer, as he has maintained, but a “major intelligence figure.” It also said his name was among those of 30 officers listed on a table of honor by the Nazis to commemorate a massacre of partisans near the Croatian town of Kozara.

“That is nonsense,” Waldheim said in Vienna, when asked about the Kozara allegation. “There were no massacres. It was a cruel war in those days and I regret that deeply.”

Waldheim, who is the leading candidate in the May 4 Austrian presidential election, did not rule out the possibility that his name appeared on a Kozara memorial.

“I assume that all officers who were active then in these (Balkan) units . . . were on it,” he said.

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Commenting on photocopies released by the World Jewish Congress purportedly showing his signature on reports detailing mop-up actions against the partisans, Waldheim said: “That was a completely normal activity and has nothing to do with atrocities or criminal acts. That was a completely correct and respectable activity.”

The accusations came one day after Waldheim confirmed that he belonged to a unit during World War II that was accused of massacring Yugoslav civilians.

Waldheim, who maintains that he is the target of a witch hunt at home and abroad, has consistently denied any wrongdoing since the World Jewish Congress first accused him earlier this month of hiding a Nazi past before and during World War II.