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Professor analyzes ‘unlikely war criminal’ |
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Tuesday, 29 January 2008 |
by REBECCA GARDNER
News Reporter
Historian and retired Appalachian State University professor Peter Petschauer will present “Kurt Waldheim: An Unlikely War Criminal,” a lecture that demonstrates how the media influenced society and deemed Waldheim a war criminal.
“This is not to excuse anything that happened in the 1930s, or to deny the Holocast; it is about this one man,” Petschauer said. “It is about one man whose record got skewed by misinformation and I will point to specific things that people used against him.”
Petschauer became interested in this topic at Waldheim’s funeral in 2007.
Petschauer was disappointed to see how the media influenced the public’s opinion of Waldheim after
he served in World War II.
Waldheim was running for president at the time accusations about him came out.
Petschauer will site specific scenarios regarding Waldheim’s involvement that led to the accusations.
The Austrians wanted Waldheim to lose the election so they got together in a meeting “to color him
brown” (Nazi) and then they decided to accuse him of genocide, Petschauer said.
There were other accusations against Waldheim that Petschauer will prove are incorrect.
“Waldheim was a strong anti-Nazi conservative who was accused of participating in the decision to
deport Jews in Saloniki (a city in Greece) which was a tremendous charge,” Petschauer said.
Waldheim was also accused of being part of a decision to kill British commandos around 1943.
Despite the accusations against Waldheim, and the errors of the media during this time period,
Petschauer will speak about how Waldheim won the election and became president.
“Hopefully people will learn not to trust off the top what they read, which is even more true for the
Internet than newspapers,” Petschauer said. “Students need to look at the source material, check
behind it.”
Petschauer’s presentation will be held Wednesday at 7 p.m. in room 114 of Old Belk Classroom
Building.
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