Yes, Nehru played a role in Austria’s emergence as independent nation, but that’s just half the story

It seems that the Congress party is bitter about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Somehow this bitterness seems to increase whenever the Prime Minister goes abroad. Now in his third term, the Prime Minister has just returned from a trip to Austria. And the Congress wants everyone to know how Nehru played a role in the emergence of Austria as an independent country in 1955. We are all supposed to talk about this history, and cherish it. Otherwise, we might be “Nehruphobic.”

So let us do just that. Why was Austria occupied after World War II? Why would Austria suddenly need to “emerge” in 1955, with the help of Nehru or anyone else? What is the “first victim” theory of the Austrians? Nobody believes it in Austria today. But in the 1940s and the 1950s, it was one of the great lies of the 20th century. One which whitewashed the crimes of Nazism.

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The modern state of Austria consists roughly of the German speaking parts of what was once called the Austro-Hungarian empire. Along with Germany, it was one of the defeated powers in the First World War. So the Austro-Hungarian empire was broken up in 1919, chiefly into Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. So Austria became a landlocked country, between Germany to the north and Italy to the south.

But things began to change for Austria in the 1930s, with the rise of fascism in Italy and of national socialism in Germany. Already, Austria had seen a civil war in 1934, followed by the formation of a fascist government. But many ethnic Germans in Austria wished to see their country unified with Germany to form a great German speaking state. This would be under the leadership of an Austrian born painter who had recently become Chancellor of Germany. His name: Adolf Hitler.

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In 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria. The Germans handed over leadership to the Austrian Nazi party, which quickly ordered the unification with Germany. There was hardly any resistance. It helped that Hitler was Catholic, much like the vast majority of Austrians at that time. The bishops of Austria, led by the Archbishop of Vienna, appealed to the Austrian people to embrace the union with Germany. Their declaration ended with the words Heil Hitler.

Almost immediately, the crimes of the Nazis in Austria began. The Jews were rounded up, and their businesses were seized. The Nazis in Austria built their first slave labor camp as early as 1938. This was at Mauthausen, near the city of Linz. This went on to become one of the most infamous concentration camps in Nazi Germany, where nearly 90,000 people perished. In fact, academics estimate that Austrians made up nearly 70 percent of those who headed the Nazi concentration camps. This is an astonishing number, considering that Austria accounted for just 8 percent of the population of Nazi Germany.

But as the 1940s progressed, the war began to turn against Germany. Everyone began looking for a way out. Many Austrian politicians now came up with a new spin. In this version of events, Austria was not a collaborator in the crimes of Nazi Germany. Instead, they argued that Austria was actually the “first victim” of Nazism, occupied in 1938. At the time, it suited many people, and the world powers, to believe this theory. But this also means that any politician, including Nehru, who wants to treat Austria as separate from Nazi Germany, is basically whitewashing the crimes of Nazism. The Nazis murdered almost 65,000 Austrian Jews. At its most perverted, the “first victim” theory was then used by Austria after the war to deny reparations to the real victims of Nazism, such as Jewish holocaust survivors. Since Austria itself claimed to be a victim, why would it owe anything to other victims?

Besides, Austria did not make a clean break with its Nazi past. Following the war, the social democrat Karl Renner became President of Austria. Karl Renner had himself supported the union with Nazi Germany in 1938! Even as late as 1986, Austria elected a Nazi intelligence officer as President. It was only in the 1990s, following worldwide outrage, that Austria began taking steps to own up its responsibility for the crimes of Nazism. Austria now pays out compensation to Jewish survivors of the holocaust.

The Austrian “first victim” theory is now completely discredited, both in Austria and outside. But for too long, the first victim theory was a comforting myth for many Austrians. And too many people, including perhaps Nehru, did not hold Austria accountable.

Of course, none of this makes Nehru evil. At the time, he represented India on the world stage. He did what was diplomatically the most convenient for India. But when moral greatness is invented through half-informed tweets, somebody has to speak up and tell the history in full context. Otherwise, we risk handing another set of comforting myths to people today, circulated through WhatsApp University.

Abhishek Banerjee (@AbhishBanerj on ‘X’) is an author and columnist. Karuna Gopal (@KarunaGopal1 on ‘X’) is president, Foundation for Futuristic Cities. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.