NAMES IN THE NEWS : Waldheim Apologizes to Israelis
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JERUSALEM — Austrian President Kurt Waldheim apologized to the Israeli people today for trying to cover up his service in the Nazi army during World War II but insisted that he was innocent of mistreating Jews.
Waldheim’s election as president in 1986 angered Jews who accused him of concealing a Nazi past by leaving his Wehrmacht service out of his autobiography and then denying it. Only later did he admit his service but said it was involuntary.
“I absolutely regret these omissions, which were not lies since the accusations against me are groundless,” he said in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
“I was wrong not to tell the whole truth right at the beginning. But I was so shocked that I denied every single allegation, thus placing myself in a defensive position.”
A former U.N. secretary general, Waldheim acknowledged having been a German army intelligence officer during World War II but denied any wrongdoing.
“I can look in your eyes and tell you--I did not know a thing about any of this,” Waldheim told Haaretz.
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