ABSTRACT
The line of argument that depicts Austria as a victim represents only one side of efforts to interpret the past, namely the one used in official presentations of the country, especially in foreign politics, schoolbooks, and other official publications. The numerous local initiatives to erect monuments to the memory of victims of the Nazi regime in recent years would suggest that the “shared responsibility view” is not confined to national Austrian politics but has become politically acceptable at the local level as well. The same applies to Austria’s perception of its role in the Second World War. National Socialism was thus seen as something imposed by external forces for which Austria could not be held responsible. Waldheim’s biography showed that he was an average Austrian Mitlaufer who had neither been a fervent National Socialist nor an outspoken opponent of the Nazi regime but rather someone that “always tried to conform.”.
