Guilty victim

by Hella Pick

"Since 1945, Austria has succeeded in presenting an image of itself as a comfortable, middle-class society at the centre of Europe, whose recent past, although awkward, was not shaming. After all, had Austria not succeeded in presenting itself as Hitler's first victim of aggression, following the Anschluss? Yet Hella Pick shows that if there has been hypocrisy about Austria's attitude towards itself - for its complicity in the Holocaust is beyond doubt - then its selective memory has been generously fed by the four wartime allies, who for different reasons found it convenient to repackage Austria as Hitler's first victim. This was a gift the Austrians could not fail to exploit." "Guilty Victim explores Austria's search for an internationally credible identity for itself after the Nazi era. But Hella Pick shows how the old ghosts will not go away. It is not just the saga of President Kurt Waldheim's Nazi past which has haunted Austria's graceful glide to rehabilitation and respectabilit