Language:
German
Year of publication:
1990
Titel der Quelle:
Das Jüdische Echo
Angaben zur Quelle:
39 (1990) 42-51
Keywords:
Helmer, Oskar,
;
Antisemitism History 1945-
Abstract:
Recounts incidents of the immediate postwar period in which Helmer, a leading Austrian socialist and at the time Minister of the Interior, showed his antisemitic leanings. Like most of the socialist ministers, especially Helmer's close colleague Adolf Schärf and Chancellor Renner, he tried to prevent as far as possible the return of leading prewar socialists to Austria and to positions in the party. He told one of them bluntly that there had been too many Jews in the prewar leadership, and their distance from the people had helped bring about the downfall of the First Republic. Rather than Jews, he promoted the integration and advancement of former Nazis. He showed utter insensitivity to Jewish comrades who had suffered in the concentration camps and lost loved ones. Behind Jewish demands for restitution, he saw a conspiracy of Jewish power in finance and the press; he advised the cabinet, which agreed with him, to draw out the negotiations on endless pretexts: "After all, we ourselves have nothing to eat".
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink