Quo Vadis, Austria??

Has National Socialism come back to Austria? Or had it never left?

All the earmarks are there: Antisemitism, dislike or hatred of all that is foreign, from the comments made behind a hand in front of the mouth right down to the blatant expressions of this hatred.

When the song book of one of the student fraternities contains the words (freely translated):

“forward, you Germanic fighters, together we shall accomplish the 7^th million” in a clear reference to the 6 million members of the Jewish population then living in Europe who were brutally murdered between 1933 and 1945, while the Nazis ruled the roost in most of Europe. The song then continues: “Into their middle stepped a slit-eyed Chinese: We too are Indo-Germans and want to join the SS.”

It is almost unbelievable, that in the modern age in which we live today, there are seemingly well educated people who advocate the murder of another million Jewish men, women and children.

So, you think that this songbook had been published many years ago. Maybe at the height of the Nazi Regime, maybe in 1939 or 1940!

I regret that I must disappoint you: This “Songbook” experienced its third edition in 1997. Fully 32 years after the Holocaust was well known in all its unbelievable horror.

So, again you might think that this is a singular transgression by one Student Club counting only a few members. Wrong again: It is estimated that there are 150 such “German National” Student Unions with about 4000 members.

The number of Austria's leading politicians, who come from such Unions is frightening.

Although most of them belong to the FPÖ ( Liberty Party of Austria) there are also some isolated members of other parties who profess this Antisemitism. A high ranking member of the SPÖ (Socialist Party of Austria) reportedly was the illustrator of this song book. To the credit of the SPÖ it must be stated that they excluded him from their membership without delay.

Others are defended by Heinz-Christian Strache the “Leader” of the FPÖ and all of them of course claim never to have sung this song, in fact, “They never knew of its existence”...

Reminds you strongly of the “amnesia” of most Nazis, who, after the war in 1945 and onward, claimed never to have known of the existence of Concentration Camps.

It is also interesting to note, that most of the songs speak of “being faithful to the German Blood, and to the German Flag”... etc etc... what is it with the “Austrian Blood and the Austrian Flag?”

In fact, the slogan of the Club "Germania" is as follows:

"Deutsch und treu in Not und Tod" ... freely translated:

"German and faithful, in need and death"

Now there is much talk of legally dissolving the Student Union, called “Germania.”

How long will it take for some action to follow all the talk?

And while they are at it: Just after banning the Club, might they not also change the thinking of its members? But how?

During the Nazi time, the time these boys and men so celebrate and admire, it would have been simple: All members of any organization advocating measures contrary to the State, would have been arrested and sent to a Concentration camp for “Re-Education” where most would likely have been murdered.

It is truly a good thing that this is no longer possible. However, some method of Re-Education should be found.

This thinking, as Sebastian Kurz, Austria's Chancellor said, has no place in his political party, nor in Austria as a whole.

I hope he is right.
But I fear, they all just talk gobbledygook !!!