Is Arnold Schwarzenegger a son of a former Nazi commendant?

[No Passaran]

I like Arnie. I had a pleasure of meeting him at BIAP in July for a special screening of Terminator 3.

However, I was amazed to read at least 8 articles regarding Arnold's relationship with Kurt Waldheim.

"Arnold invited Kurt Waldheim to his wedding, who had been a friend of Gustav's (Arnold's father), and who also happened to be a Nazi. Kurt Waldheim was banned the year after Schwarzenegger's wedding from entering the United States. Waldheim was unable to attend the wedding, but instead did the right thing and sent along a sculpture of the newlyweds, depicting Arnold hoisting Maria on his shoulders, him dressed in lederhosen and she in a dirndl skirt and laced-up blouse. This spectacularly taste-variant gift inspired Arnold to raise a glass to Waldheim in his absence and propose a toast to him. His support for Waldheim has not diminished with time."

For those of you unfamiliar with Kurt Waldheim, he was a former UN Secretary General and Austrian President whose career was destroyed after documents (leaked by KGB) proved his Nazi membership and his involvement in Nazi attrocities in Former Yugoslavia.

I just wanted to know everyone's opinion about this and will it damage his political ambitions?

[TLM]

1. Yeah his dad was a full on nazi...

member of the nazi party... member of the military police... according to the Austrian State Department.

[sierrak9s]

19. More Nazi ties...

Not only was Arnold's father a Nazi, but Arnold is married to the granddaughter of one of America's most prominent Nazi sympathizers in the 30's.

[zoidberg]

20. Let's see how long this one slips under the radar...

nm

[sierrak9s]

22. Why...

whatever could you mean? O8)

[JohnKleeb]

24. you mean Joe Kennedy

I wouldnt say that he was an anti nazi but the man you really gotta look at if you want nazi symapthizers is Prescott Bush and Henry Ford.

[QuietStorm]

28. I am unfamilar with the Kennedy

ties to the Reich, I have never come across. I know he made his money bootlegging, with ties to the mafia, but the Reich I never heard. Do you have a source for this. Prescott I am aware of, Disney I am aware of, IBM I am aware of but Kennedy?

[stoystown]

2. He was a sgt. at a prison camp

Salag 13 - his name was Schultz.

"I seee nuuuuuuuthink!"

[ScotTissue]

3. Wrong to concentrate on father's Nazi question

I believe it is wrong to focus on the question of his dad being a Nazi, when we can more easily point out that Arnold is a Republican--which is worse!

[Skittles]

4. thank you

I don't like this "sins of the father" stuff unless, of course, dad currently influences said son, like certain ex-presidents. :O

[Unknown Known]

5. "Sins of the father" my ass

Arnold ACTIVELY worked and helped elect Kurt Waldheim who was a Nazi intelligence office and part of the group that committed atrocities and mass murder in Bosnis during WWII.

Arnold had a problem with his father, not because he was a Nazi, but because he ladled all praise on Arnold's brother and not him.

Arnold is a true believer all right. Make no mistake about it.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/949666.asp

[ArkDem]

8. Where is Bosnis?

.

[JohnKleeb]

25. Bosnia I think they meant

I thought it happened in the entire Yugoslavia and you know what I am part Yugoslav :)

[Skittles]

9. I never said

I didn't have a problem with Waldheim

[TacticalPeek]

7. I don't get this 'lay off A's Nazi dad' syndrome.

Sure, in itself it of course is no reason to vote against A, unless maybe you're a camp survivor, or, like my dad, still have after-effects of trench foot from fighting the sons of bitches in the Battle of the Bulge. Then I could understand the desire to hammer that nail an extra lick or two.

But it is absolutely proper and fitting to ask the dolt about this, and Waldheim, and let him answer. Let him say 'no visiting of sins' allowed. Let the voters know about it and about A's answers.

Otherwise, by implication, we should take pains to hush it up? Whitewash? Cover-up? Is he a big boy now, or what? Can he talk reasonably about it, maybe even gain votes with this eloquence, or picked-on, victim status?

Better: no secrets.

Next, he needs to be asked about his AWOL and punishment, compared to the chimp's desertion and scotfreeness.

[ArkDem]

6. I didn't know the Nazi's had commendants.

.

[Snellius]

10. Haven't you ever watched "Hogan's Heroes"?

The famous commandant Colonel Klink?

[ArkDem]

13. I said commendants.........

.

[TacticalPeek]

11. Believe so:

snip

"I was released, as I suggested, to contact American liason officers with the French Army. I returned from this mission with authority to accept unconditional surrender of the garrison and to post ten of our men as guards over the Nazis.”, Reilinger related.

The Nazi commandant’s complaint was Reilinger’s insistence that the terms of surrender would include handing over his decorated pistol and sword to a Yankee T/4.

After blowing off steam, the colonel surrendered."

snip

link http://www.thetroubleshooters.com/history212.html

many more googled

[ArkDem]

27. That is commandant's not commendant's

.

[Snellius]

12. Arnold said he wanted to be like Hitler. And JESUS!

Why? Because they both were powerful and famous. I'm not sure he's smart enough to know what a nazi is. He may not be a nazi but his megalomania is just as ubermenschian. Triumph of the Will.

Other allegations may be refloated, like the one Charles Fleming included in a March 1992 Spy magazine article -- confirmed, he wrote, by "a businessman and longtime friend of Schwarzenegger's" -- that in the '70s Arnold "enjoyed playing and giving away records of Hitler's speeches." There is also the allegation of Arnold's having said on-camera, during the filming of "Pumping Iron" (1977) by director George Butler, that he "admired" Hitler. This last allegation was included in a 1991 Schwarzenegger biography by Wendy Leigh, who quoted Mr. Butler as her main source. In the summer of 1992 Mr. Schwarzeneger won a libel suit against Ms. Leigh, not regarding her book but a 1988 article she helped write for the British tabloid News of the World that included other allegations. Part of that settlement was an apology from Ms. Leigh, which read, "Mr. Schwarzenegger has never espoused Nazi or anti-Semitic views, has never been an admirer of Hitler's evil regime, and he did not admire or approve of his father's alleged conduct."

In an interview last summer, Mr. Butler did not dispute Ms. Leigh's reporting about Mr. Schwarzenegger's Hitler remark except to say that "the context was power." In the "Pumping Iron" interview in question (an outtake that was never included in the film), Mr. Butler recalls that Mr. Schwarzenegger "said he admired Jesus Christ for the same reason. He was basically saying that he admired famous people and that he wanted to be famous as well."

http://www.s-t.com/daily/12-96/12-25-96/c06ae100.htm

[Unknown Known]

14. Does Arnie still maintain Austrian citizenship?

There's another question for Arnold the Barbarian.



Why does Arnold maintain a friendship with a man his own father's age? Could it be that Arnold's father and Waldheim were friends to begin with?

If Arnold is so close to Waldheim (he and Maria invited Waldheim to their wedding), does Arnold know Gunther Russbacher?

Russbacher is/was Waldheim's godson. Russbacher's father, also a Nazi, was part of the U.S. re-settlement program after WWII of former Nazis (Operation Paperclip). The Russbacher's were part of the group that was resettled in OKC.

Gunther Russbacher joined the ONI and purportedly flew the SR-71 to the October Surprise Paris meeting involving GHWB. He was later imprisoned in Missouri (during Ashcroft's regime) on trumped up charges of impersonating an officer.

If you've never read about Russbacher, it is a fascinating story - all the more now that Arnie will be installed as puppet governor of CA.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

15. Yes please keep talking about Nazi father

It will change a lot of undecided voter minds.

UNDECIDED VOTER: I don't know what to do in the recall election. It
is so confusing. I do not know who to vote for.

UV MATE: Well, Arnold's father was a Nazi.

UV: Really?

UVM: Oh, yep.

UV: That is terrible! That poor Arnold. I will vote for him.

[0rganism]

17. Hey, it worked for Bush sr, right?

Undecided Voter: I can't decide between Bush and Dukakis.

Decided Voter: Ya know, Bush's dad helped finance the Nazi war machine, and had his assets siezed by the US gov't. I don't trust his son.

UV: Really?

DV: Yep.

UV: Amazing how well he's recovered from that debacle, it doesn't even get mentioned in the press, so he must be a truly great man. I will vote for him.

[pullyourheadout]

16. Who cares?

[Unknown Known]

18. what YOU think!

Must be a renegade member of Heaven's Gate:puke:

[slackmaster]

21. Arnie has Waldheimer's Disease

A degenerative brain disorder that makes you unable to remember who was a Nazi.

[Unknown Known]

23. Did Arnie pay off Simon Wiesenthal Center

to whitewash his father's Nazi past?

This writer thinks so...

Smart politician that he is, Schwarzenegger has bought himself insurance against his father’s Nazi Party affiliation in Austria. More than a decade ago, he went to Simon Wiesenthal’s organization and asked them to investigate his father’s background and then he contributed a wad of cash to the Holocaust studies center. If money can buy a recall election, why can’t it buy a clean family record?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/952047.asp

[mitchum]

26. jackboot kick