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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Austrian reactions to Nazi dictatorship | Austrian reactions to Nazi dictatorship |
| (8 days later) | |
| Yes, indeed, according to received wisdom, when Hitler's troops marched into Vienna "most residents greeted the occupiers warmly" (Vienna Philharmonic finally gives up its dark secrets of playing Hitler's tune, 12 March). Is this based on pictures of crowds, estimated at 200,000, in front of the Hofburg? Out of a population of 1.77 million (the 1939 figure for Vienna)? All waving flags, even those standing at the back? What about those decent citizens who were not caught up in the hysteria and stayed at home, also fearing for their families? Who counts them? Is Hitler's plebiscite a reliable guide any more than the ridiculed "elections" in eastern Europe between 1945 and 1989? | Yes, indeed, according to received wisdom, when Hitler's troops marched into Vienna "most residents greeted the occupiers warmly" (Vienna Philharmonic finally gives up its dark secrets of playing Hitler's tune, 12 March). Is this based on pictures of crowds, estimated at 200,000, in front of the Hofburg? Out of a population of 1.77 million (the 1939 figure for Vienna)? All waving flags, even those standing at the back? What about those decent citizens who were not caught up in the hysteria and stayed at home, also fearing for their families? Who counts them? Is Hitler's plebiscite a reliable guide any more than the ridiculed "elections" in eastern Europe between 1945 and 1989? |
| Has no one, 75 years on, any idea of real life under a dictatorship? How do you keep your livelihood, except by going along with the prevailing system? Yes, there were some very nasty people in Austria at the time. In Britain also, but they, by historical circumstance, did not come out on top. There were many others in Austria, too, a country defined by the allies as the first victim of Nazi Germany. Nor in Britain would everyone have risked all and their children by impotent acts of principled heroism. | Has no one, 75 years on, any idea of real life under a dictatorship? How do you keep your livelihood, except by going along with the prevailing system? Yes, there were some very nasty people in Austria at the time. In Britain also, but they, by historical circumstance, did not come out on top. There were many others in Austria, too, a country defined by the allies as the first victim of Nazi Germany. Nor in Britain would everyone have risked all and their children by impotent acts of principled heroism. |
| It has been said that, had she been born in East Germany, Margaret Thatcher would have made her career in the prevailing system there, too. John Clifford Edinburgh | It has been said that, had she been born in East Germany, Margaret Thatcher would have made her career in the prevailing system there, too. John Clifford Edinburgh |
| • The story about Jewish musicians in the Vienna Philharmonic reports that a total of 13 were expelled from the orchestra, five of whom died in Nazi death camps. A captioned photograph in Dover Museum claims that by 1939-40 many Jewish refugees from the Vienna Philharmonic were being sheltered in the military base between Sandwich and Richborough, where, together with other refugees, including doctors, professors, engineers and artists, they helped organise a camp school and university. Professor Rod Edmond Deal, Kent | • The story about Jewish musicians in the Vienna Philharmonic reports that a total of 13 were expelled from the orchestra, five of whom died in Nazi death camps. A captioned photograph in Dover Museum claims that by 1939-40 many Jewish refugees from the Vienna Philharmonic were being sheltered in the military base between Sandwich and Richborough, where, together with other refugees, including doctors, professors, engineers and artists, they helped organise a camp school and university. Professor Rod Edmond Deal, Kent |
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