"Red-White-Red Book" published by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1946, an official description of the point of view on events of 1938–1945 by the founders of the Second Austrian Republic
The victim theory (German: Opferthese), encapsulated in the slogan "Austria – the Nazis' first victim" (Österreich – das erste Opfer der Nazis), was the 1949–1988 Austrian ideological basis formed by Austrians themselves under Allied occupation and independent Second Austrian Republic.[1][2][3] According to the founders of the Second Austrian Republic, the 1938 Anschluss was an act of military aggression by the Third Reich. Austrian statehood had been interrupted and therefore the newly revived Austria of 1945 could not and should not be considered responsible for the Nazis' crimes in any way. The "victim theory" that had formed by 1949 insisted that all of the Austrians, including those who strongly supported Hitler, had been unwilling victims of the Nazi regime and were therefore not responsible for its crimes.
The "victim theory" became a fundamental myth in Austrian society which allowed previously bitter political opponents – e.g. the Social Democrats and the conservative Catholics – to unite and bring former Nazis back into social and political life. For almost half a century, the Austrian state denied the existence of any continuity between it and the political regime that had existed in Austria from 1938 to 1945, actively kept up the myth of Austrian self-sacrificing statehood, and cultivated an image of national unity. Postwar denazification was quickly wound up; veterans of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS took an honorable place in society. The struggle for justice by the actual victims of Nazism – primarily Jews – was deprecated as an attempt to obtain illicit enrichment at the expense of the rest of the Austrian nation.
In 1986, the election of a former Wehrmacht intelligence officer, Kurt Waldheim, as federal president put Austria on the verge of international isolation. Powerful external pressure and an internal political discussion forced Austrians to reconsider their attitude to the past. Starting with the political administration in 1988 and then followed by most of the Austrian people, the nation admitted its collective responsibility for the crimes committed during the Nazi occupation and officially abandoned the "victim theory". Some historians also call the "victim theory" the "big lie".[4]
^Uhl 1997, p. 66.
^Art 2005, p. 104.
^Embacher & Ecker 2010, p. 16.
^Bischof & Pelinka 1997, pp. 3–.
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The victimtheory (German: Opferthese), encapsulated in the slogan "Austria – the Nazis' first victim" (Österreich – das erste Opfer der Nazis), was the...
no part. Germany portal Society portal Collective Responsibility Austriavictimtheory Myth of the clean Wehrmacht Denazification Diffusion of responsibility...
untold suffering to millions and insulting the memory of the innocent victims of those times. In April 2012, the South African Reserve Bank stated that...
was a popular theory at the time) and the others depicting the territories of the Thai kingdoms of Nanzhao (considered so under said theory), Sukhothai...
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contemporary Belgium Antisemitism in contemporary Hungary Austriavictimtheory Israel–Austria relations "Manifestations of Antisemitism in the EU 2002...
the "Clean Wehrmacht" popular in post-war West Germany or the "victimtheory" in Austria. The 2012 report of the Italian-German Historical Commission noted...
the other great powers. Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles Austriavictimtheory Causes of World War I American entry into World War I Austro-Hungarian...
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine federal states...
Final Solution were Austrian. After World War II, many Austrians sought comfort in the myth of Austria as being the first victim of the Nazis. Although...
who is known for the promotion of Holocaust denial and other conspiracy theories. Formerly an honorary research fellow in The Department for Science and...
speaking countries, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, is somewhat different from the Anglo-Saxon experience. For example, victim–offender mediation is...
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photograph is actually the victim's sister, wearing her deceased sister's dress. Writing about the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories, Benjamin Radford argued...
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replacement theory or great replacement theory, is a white nationalist far-right conspiracy theory espoused by French author Renaud Camus. The original theory states...
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placed on the victim rather than the offender. Furthermore, the culture of violence theory potentially accounts for inter-generational theories of violence...
The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or "germs"...
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