
Footage of life in Nazi Austria, thanks to a new video archive - Oatseller
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/new-amateur-film-collection-challenges-narratives-about-life-nazi-austria-180957193/?no-ist
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pnathan
> In the late 1930s, despite several attempts by some leaders to maintain
> Austrian independence, Nazi influence within the Austrian government and
> among the populace was too strong. The Nazis entered Austria on March 12,
> 1938 and absorbed the country into Germany the following day; the annexation
> was known as the Anschluss. A manipulated plebiscite administered a month
> later indicated that over 99 percent of Austrians were in favor of the
> situation. And though questions persist about the Austrians’ willingness to
> be a part of Nazi Germany, the raw footage in these films presents at least
> one side of the story.

I've been reading a history of Central Europe lately, and one of the
interesting points that it brings out is that in the 1800s there was a desire
on the part of some to unify the different German states within the general
German world; this included Austria, and this unification for a greater German
state was called Anschluss. Particularly after Austria-Hungary broke up in the
WW1 aftermath, this was up for discussion a lot. I was quite surprised to read
that; it suggested that the annexation of Austria was not a Nazi invention at
all and had much more historic roots.

(I'd love to hear more from someone who knows more; this is just cribbed from
history books).

~~~
fit2rule
The modern Austrian will be the first to tell you that Austria was the first
victim of Nazi aggression .. and ignore the welcome that was put out by a
majority of the Austrian populace for Hitler, but there really is a deeper
truth that the reason they are telling you that Austria was a victim is that
the de-Nazi'fication of Austria after the war required the then-growing
generations to discard the culture of their parents, which did indeed welcome
Nazi ideology with open arms. Austrians' have been programmed to think that
their country was the first victim in the war - lest they perpetuate the
ideologies that allowed such an easy victory for the Nazi's in the first
place.

No Austrian wants to admit the long-standing cultural roots of imperialism and
fascism that took hold of their country - and still reflect in its darker
depths. Authoritarianism is still the mode of the day; group-think and the mob
mind very much still grips the Austrian zeitgeist, as it has for centuries.

~~~
the_mitsuhiko
> The modern Austrian will be the first to tell you that Austria was the first
> victim of Nazi aggression

Uh. That has not been the case for many years now. Austria has had this
attitude right after the war but things have changed a lot in the last 60
years.

As someone who went through Austrian education I can tell you that Austria's
view as it being a victim was controversially discussed throughout our history
education and ultimately dismissed.

There are probably still some that think Austria was a victim in this, but I
doubt that this would be the majority.

~~~
fit2rule
I live in Austria, and I hear this line time and again. It has not faded at
all.

~~~
the_mitsuhiko
Hear where exactly? I really would like to see some reference to that.

//EDIT: Just to be clear. I'm not saying there are not some people that
believe that, but it has been taught differently in schools for a long time,
Austria's official position for the last 30 years is that it was not a victim.
If you talk to old people, sure, but the last two generations? I doubt it.

~~~
jacquesm
From the relevant wikipedia page:

"After its convention in early 2011 mid-way between general elections, the FPÖ
had a support in opinion polls of around 24-29%—at par with the SPÖ and ÖVP,
and above the BZÖ. Among people under 30 years of age, the FPÖ had the support
of 42%.[61][62] In June 2015 the main part of the federal party section of
Salzburg split of and formed the Free Party Salzburg. [63]"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Party_of_Austria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Party_of_Austria)

Presumably a fair chunk of those voters would describe the situation as the GP
quoted. Not hard to believe at all.

(And 'under 30' is definitely not 'old people')

Painting yourself as the victim is a tried and true strategy of nationalist
parties. After all, someone else has to be blamed for whatever is wrong it
would not do to seek fault with yourself. I'm sure they were taught different
in school but that won't stop people to believe whatever it is that supports
their desired outcomes most, even if that goes contrary to their education.

I don't like the generalization to _all_ Austrians, that makes absolutely no
sense. But some Austrians, quite probably and with 30% voting for right wing
nationalists quite a few of those would be under 30.

We have a similar dumb thing going on here in NL with a guy called Wilders.
He's managed to enlist the young people with his brand of scapegoating and
populism and most of what those people believe would leave a student of the
run-up to WWII horrified. That doesn't mean _all_ Dutch people are Wilders
followers or fans but I would not rule out any demographic from being his
supporters.

~~~
the_mitsuhiko
I'm not sure how this is in any way related to the discussion at hand. The
FPOe never had the opinion that Austria was a victim. If anything the FPOe had
party members there were way too attached to national socialism and probably
still has some.

However if you look at present day FPOe they are attracting votes because they
are the only party which promises a solution for the refugee crisis and
problem that badly managed immigration in Austria causes.

~~~
jacquesm
It's related because you take exception to the term 'modern Austrian'. I take
exception to the generalization to _all_ but find it perfectly believable that
a segment of modern day Austrians is still in convenient denial. From personal
anecdote I can confirm it but I don't like to go down that route so I'd rather
stick to the statistics about the right wing party representation in Austria
and submit that amongst a group that large there must be some overlap with the
group that still sees Austria as the victim of the Nazis. That's simple
statistics and does not require exceptional leaps of faith.

Aside: Nationalist parties are pretty good at finding ways to gain a foothold
using single-issue scapegoating games. What you get once they're in power is a
totally different kettle of fish.

~~~
the_mitsuhiko
> but find it perfectly believable that a segment of modern day Austrians is
> still in convenient denial.

Sure, but I did not dispute that. There are people with questionable
ideologies in all countries. However if you look at the population as a whole
the question is how large that percentage is (among people who were not
actively involved in the war).

The reason why I object to the concept that Austria is particularly
problematic in that regard (which is what international opinion appears to be)
is because we can have a direct comparison to Germany. You can basically
divide a German statistic by 10 and then compare it to Austria to see how the
countries are doing. And with regards to most things with regards to national
socialism we are doing significantly better than Germany these days.

------
pinkrooftop
Interesting and related is the voting card from the Anschluss referendum
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_Anschluss_referendum,...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_Anschluss_referendum,_1938#/media/File:Stimmzettel-
Anschluss.jpg)

~~~
jacquesm
No trick left unused.

------
jacquesm
The switch from 'left' to 'right' hand side driving:

[http://efilms.ushmm.org/film_player?movieID=33&movieSig=EF-N...](http://efilms.ushmm.org/film_player?movieID=33&movieSig=EF-
NS_033_OeFM&movieSpeed=24)

~~~
the_mitsuhiko
This is really cool to watch. I tried to find this video for a long time.

------
dmix
The Nazi's had some excellent graphic design, the typography in most of those
ads around the city are excellent. Modern display advertisements really do
make cities uglier.

~~~
tobr
A lot of totalitarian propaganda has that attractive, simple but striking
design; it's not hard to understand how it can sway people. And hand painted
signage always looks classy, even when it isn't hate speech...

~~~
Someone
I'm not sure I agree with that. Yes, even the simplest signage can be
beautiful (nice example:
[https://vimeo.com/126922477;](https://vimeo.com/126922477;) see also
[http://www.henrysignpainter.com](http://www.henrysignpainter.com)), but
creating it requires talent and exercise.

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josefdlange
The first time I read this headline I thought it said "Nazi Australia" which
would be weirder.

~~~
dghughes
I was working with a vendor from Austria for the last two weeks and he said
sometimes people arrive there by mistake instead of Australia.

------
stefs
> “It’s pretty controversial. Austrians have for the most part perceived
> themselves as Hitler’s first victims, and as you can see through a lot of
> these films it was really not entirely that way. There was a lot of
> immediate sort of acceptance of the Nazi philosophy,” says Zarwell.

when i learned about WW2 in school in the 90s we weren't _really_ thaught that
we were hitlers "first victims". we did learn about the widespread vote
manipulation and effective propaganda, but also that there were the pictured
parades to welcome the "occupiers" and that big parts of the population openly
welcomed him into the country.

------
BorisMelnik
I would love to see a historian make a documentary out of this with some good
voice over commentary. I enjoyed watching some of these clips but couldn't
guess as to what was the context in a lot of them.

~~~
VLM
It would be an extension or cousin of the BBC "World At War" series from the
mid 70s, episode 16 which covered life in germany or 18 which covered occupied
territory life. I guess better added as an appendix to ep 18.

WaW is a truly excellent documentary, however be prepared that it not a new
wave American style documentary ... there will be no historical re-enactments,
no computer graphics, no nostalgic soundtrack, no camera panning across
photographs ... I wish we had more "real" documentaries like WaW, its almost a
completely separate genre from the modern american style.

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the-dude
[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/new-amateur-film-
colle...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/new-amateur-film-collection-
challenges-narratives-about-life-nazi-austria-180957193/?no-ist)

Seems to skip the bloody advertisement.

------
nicklaf
I should not have to install Adobe Flash player just to view images.

~~~
Raphmedia
It's not images but videos wrapped in an old flash player.

Still, they should have alternatives by now.

~~~
nicklaf
Ah. That's a lot more forgivable, so, my mistake.

You certainly are correct that alternatives for Flash video exist too. Youtube
is a great exemplar of this, but sadly, even their competitors (such as Vimeo
or Dailymotion) seem to bother.

