Austrian Official Targeted After Gestapo Party
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
VIENNA, Austria — The Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded the immediate resignation of the governor of Austria’s Tyrol province and other local politicians yesterday for throwing a 90th birthday party for a former Gestapo operative.
The Los Angeles-based group expressed “anger and frustration” that Governor Herwig von Staa and other politicians gathered to honor Ferdinand Obenfelder, a former deputy mayor of Innsbruck suspected of having carried out atrocities against Jews in Innsbruck during “Kristallnacht” — the infamous “Night of Broken Glass” pogrom in 1938.
Efraim Zuroff, the center’s chief Nazi hunter, said he was outraged “that individuals whose deeds during the Nazi period — who should be publicly repudiated — instead are honored by Austrian public figures who clearly should be acting differently.”
Mr. Zuroff called on Governor von Staa to step down along with the mayor of Innsbruck, Hilde Zoch, and several regional leaders of the Social Democratic Party who attended last month’s party.
Governor von Staa was not immediately available for comment.
