In fact, they exchanged vows at a nearby church, then held their wedding reception at the Kennedy compound, where the scene described above took place. 11, 2003: An earlier version of this piece stated incorrectly that Schwarzenegger and Shriver “exchanged wedding vows” at the Kennedy compound. If Schwarzenegger doesn’t renounce Waldheim in a highly public way, he can forget about ever becoming governor of California.Ĭorrection, Aug. He’s done more to further the cause of Holocaust awareness than almost any other Hollywood star.”Ĭlearly, though, that won’t be enough. To suggest that Arnold’s an anti-Semite is preposterous. “He probably did not have any clue as to the seriousness of the allegations against Waldheim at that time. “He wants no truck with … Waldheim,” the Wiesenthal Center’s Rabbi Marvin Hier told the Jerusalem Post. Rather than confront his Waldheim problem head-on, Schwarzenegger has proclaimed his disgust for Nazism, raised money for education about the Holocaust, traveled to Israel (where he met with then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin), and given generously to the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which in 1997 bestowed on him its National Leadership Award. Schwarzenegger reportedly addressed him as “Uncle.” (Schwarzenegger’s father, who died three decades ago, was a police official who had belonged to the Nazi party.) In addition, Schwarzenegger’s mother had for many years lived with Alfred Gerstl, a prominent Austrian politician who rose to the top post in the upper house of Austria’s parliament. Because Austrians have long resented what they see as Waldheim’s pointless scapegoating, any firm denunciation would have ruled the latter possibility out. For years it was rumored that if Schwarzenegger didn’t run for governor of California, he would run for president of Austria. Rather, Schwarzenegger was likely playing politics-to be more specific, Austrian politics and family politics. Why on Earth didn’t Schwarzenegger take this opportunity to speak out against Waldheim? It surely isn’t because Schwarzenegger himself had any Nazi sympathies (though during the filming of the documentary Pumping Iron, he reportedly once made a foolish comment praising Hitler). (This information comes from the1992 book Betrayal: The Untold Story of the Kurt Waldheim Investigation and Cover-Up, by Eli M. Justice Department put Waldheim on its watch list denying entry to “any foreign national who assisted or otherwise participated in activities amounting to persecution during World War II.” The international community largely shunned Waldheim, and he didn’t run for re-election. None of these revelations prevented Waldheim from winning the Austrian election, but after he became president, the U.S. (Waldheim’s name appears on the Wehrmacht’s “honor list” of those responsible for the atrocity.) In 1944, Waldheim had reviewed and approved a packet of anti-Semitic propaganda leaflets to be dropped behind Russian lines, one of which ended, “enough of the Jewish war, kill the Jews, come over.” After the war, Waldheim was wanted for war crimes by the War Crimes Commission of the United Nations, the very organization he would later head. In fact, Waldheim had resumed military service after recuperating from his injury and had been an intelligence officer in Germany’s Army Group E when it committed mass murder in the Kozara region of western Bosnia. Waldheim had always maintained that he had served in the Wehrmacht only briefly and that after being wounded early in the war, he had returned to Vienna to attend law school. Kurt Waldheim, a widely esteemed former secretary general of the United Nations, was running for president of Austria in March 1986 when it came to light that he had participated in Nazi atrocities during World War II. Here’s a question Jay Leno forgot to ask Arnold Schwarzenegger when he announced his candidacy for governor of California on last night’s Tonight Show: “Will you renounce your support for Kurt Waldheim?”Ī little refresher course may be in order.
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