Forty two per cent of respondents to a survey commissioned ahead of Tuesday’s 75th anniversary of the Anschluss — the Nazi-led union of Germany with Austria — said that life under Hitler was “not all bad”.
In the survey of 502 Austrians conducted by the Linz Market Institute for Der Standard newspaper, 54 per cent said it was “highly possible” the Nazi party would supported in Austria today.
In addition, 57 per cent said the Nazis’ victims had already been sufficiently compensated and the same percentage said they identified with statements such as: “The state should give money only to its own people.” Thirty nine per cent said the acts against Jews following Anschluss were possible today and 17 per cent said they were “very possible”.
Rabbi Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis, described the results as “incredibly disturbing but perhaps not surprising at a time when we have seen such a clear resurgence in European far-right politics.
“[The newspaper’s survey] is a stark warning that we must constantly be wary of the evil of Nazism — not just for the people of Austria but for the whole of Europe.”
