The Waldheim report

The report on Kurt Waldheim's activities in the Balkans during World War II attracted political attention when its conclusions became known in 1988. But the report itself was never published. It is an important document in connection with any discussion on war crimes and responsibility. It proves that Waldheim, to a certain extent, knew of deportations of Jews and Italian soldiers as well as of massacres of civilian populations. It concludes that by endorsing documents relating to the interrogation of prisoners who were subsequently executed, First Lieutenant Waldheim had knowledge of them and of those events, and also became part of the military machine which brought about those events. Waldheim's claim that "knowledge of a crime is not a crime itself" is not regarded in the report as acceptable without qualification.