Home > Work > Last Waltz in Vienna
1 " This prevalence of private armies, in Austria as in Germany, their marching and counter-marching, their street battles with whips, beer bottles, knuckle-dusters and occasionally even firearms, proved not their strength, but the weakness of the state. "
― , Last Waltz in Vienna
2 " The July 1934 Putsch and Dollfuss's assassination could have been prevented. Since 29 May of that year clear evidence of the planned Nazi conspiracy was available to the Austrian authorities. It came from a number of highly reliable sources. The warnings were passed to the senior security officials who were charged with the protection of the state, the government and the Chancellor. Without doubt some of them collaborated with the Nazi conspirators. Also without doubt some of the others acted with typical Austrian Schlamperei. They did not take the warnings seriously. "
3 " You heard his storm-troopers shout their "Juda verrecke!" You heard him denounce us Jews, threaten us, revile us.''Yes, I did. But will you believe me, Herr Klaar, that I and thousands like me, didn't take all that seriously? After what I saw today I know that I was wrong. But believe me, I thought all that anti-Jewish propaganda was just rabble-rousing, something for that drunken SA mob. I ignored it and thought it unimportant. I felt certain all that would be forgotten once Hitler came to power, that ...''And the Nuremberg laws?' Father interrupted her.She thought a little while before replying.'Yes,' she said, 'you're right to ask me that question. What shall I say? Of course, I know about them., but I also know now that I pushed that knowledge away from me. It won't be as bad as it sounds, I thought, and that injustice, I persuaded myself, had to be put on the scales and weighed against Hitler's achievements. Nearly six million unemployed were found jobs. Germany was strong and respected again, the same of Versailles was wiped out. Yes, I looked for the good things and was intentionally blind to the bad. I am sorry, Stella, I wanted so much to believe. "
4 " He was a father in those happy and balmy days for fathers, when they and their wishes were immediately obeyed, when they were the ostensible focal point of the family's existence and their commands were never ignored. "
