Hyperreality , 6 months ago

Vienna's a lovely city, a lot of Austrians are great people, yadayada.

I get the impression that, unlike Germany, it's a country that hasn't fully come to terms with its Nazi past. A lot of Austrians seem to be in denial about the Anschluss or how popular it was. Many will even argue that Austrians were victims, while ignoring that there was overwhelming popular support for the Anschluss at the time.

Here's a relevant article:

Otto von Habsburg ... told a meeting of the ruling conservative People's Party: "No state in Europe has a greater right than Austria to call itself a victim." He went on to dismiss an Allied wartime declaration that Austria shared responsibility for the Nazis as "hypocrisy and lies". ... followed publication of an opinion poll on Tuesday which showed that almost two thirds of Austrians wanted an end to what was described as the "endless discussion" about the country's role during the Second World War. ... new evidence and a growing mass of research about Austria's role during the Third Reich suggests that the argument that the vast majority of its citizens were willing accomplices to Nazi rule has become incontrovertible. ... The poll conducted on 10 April 1938 showed that 99.75 per cent of Austrians were in favour of the annexation. ... the results were doctored by the Nazis ... But recent research suggests that the actual number in favour of Nazi rule was still about two thirds of the electorate. ... a historian at Vienna University who has researched the period closely, said yesterday: "Hitler was welcomed into the country as a successful Austrian who was returning home from abroad and suddenly letting his own people take part in his successes. He was a sort of ersatz monarch."

This isn't just Austria, obviously.

For example, my grandfather would often sarcastically remark that the Dutch resistance gained most of its members after 1944. To quote Adolf Eichmann on Dutch collaboration: "The transports run so smoothly that it is a pleasure to see."

In Belgium, you have a similar issue where some Flemish nationalists (sometimes disingeniously) minimize the extent of their relatives collaboration during the war, as it's politically incovenient and embarassing. Same thing in France with Vichy. Same thing in much of Europe, tbh.