Politics
Trade unions use Nazi quote to promote solidarity with Palestinians
Social Workers’ Union General Secretary removed statement but refused to issue a public apology
December 5, 2024 17:09
Social Workers’ Union General Secretary removed statement but refused to issue a public apology
December 5, 2024 17:09Two trade unions have refused to apologise after using a Nazi quote to promote solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The 1978 quote, by former Austrian president Kurt Waldheim, who participated in war crimes while serving in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War, said: “Events of these last years have made the world painfully aware that the Palestinian people and the recognition and implementation of their rights are the key to any solution in the Middle East.”
The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and the Social Workers’ Union (SWU) included the quote in a statement to mark International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Friday.
After the JC raised the matter with the organisations on Friday, the statement was altered online to remove references to Waldheim, who had served as Secretary-General of the United Nations before attention was drawn to his war criminal past. The original version said: “Those words, spoken in 1978, could have been written today.”
Waldheim, who also served as Austrian foreign minister in the 1970s, was barred from entering the United States in 1987, while serving as the country’s president, after the Justice Department determined that he had participated in Nazi war crimes during the second world war.
He was the first head of state to be blocked from entering the United States.
SWU’s General Secretary John McGowan told the JC: “The statement was amended in all forums via SWU and BASW immediately after it was brought to our attention. Both organisations agreed to remove the quote and the quote pertaining to Kurt Waldheim was removed without delay.”
However, he refused to offer an apology to Jewish social workers. “I have received one communication from a SWU member regarding the unamended statement and will personally respond to this member,” he said. “Normally, our checking and fact verification is extremely tight, but in this instance, it seems a quote was included from the article ‘Stories from the UN Archive: The origin of #PalestineDay’ which was published on the UN website in 2023.”
He added that: “If any other SWU members have been offended by the initial statement I will also personally reach out to them.”
BASW, the UK's largest professional association for social work, referred the JC to McGowan’s statement.
A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies demanded a “public apology,” describing the incident as “a perfect example of the extreme left/extreme right crossover which often occurs in relation to Jewish people and the Jewish State”.
The spokesperson added: “We have heard from Jewish members of these organisations who were deeply concerned at this statement. Failing to recognise the culture in place which led to that quote being used means that such Jewish members have no desire to voluntarily identify themselves to the union authorities.”
In 1986, an investigation by the World Jewish Congress revealed that Waldheim was present for a massacre of civilians and captured partisan fighters in Podgorica, in present day Montenegro, in May 1943.
Waldheim had served as a senior intelligence aide to a General who was tried for war crimes in Yugoslavia in 1947.
He had previously claimed that he had returned to study in Vienna following an injury.
Waldheim’s Nazi past was also referenced in Lou Reed’s 1989 classic song Good Evening Mr Waldheim, in which the Jewish rock legend also took aim at Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson and Pope John Paul II.