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Article: Anniversary of Takeover Causes Rift in Austria; Role in Third Reich Hotly Debated
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- February 14, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Austria's two largest political parties quarreled recently over
what a history brochure for eighth graders should say about
chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, who was murdered by Austrian Nazis in
1934.
The conservative People's Party still reveres Dollfuss as
"Hitler's first victim." The Socialists, whose political
predecessors were crushed in bloody street fighting on Dollfuss'
orders, stress instead that his authoritarian government paved the
way for the Nazi takeover here.
The squabble illustrated this nation's awkward ambivalence about
its role as a part of the Third Reich from 1938 to 1945. From the
classroom to the family dinner table, issues have been revived that
the country ...