Editing Kurt Waldheim (section)

==Military service in World War II==
In early 1941, Waldheim was conscripted into the [[Wehrmacht]], the armed forces of [[Nazi Germany]], specifically to the [[German Army (1935–1945)|Heer (Army)]], and posted to the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] where he served as a squad leader. In December, he was wounded but returned to service in 1942. His service from 1942 to 1945 was the subject of international review in 1985 and 1986. In his 1985 autobiography, he claimed that he was discharged from further service at the front and, for the remainder of the war, finished his law degree at the [[University of Vienna]], in addition to marrying in 1944.<ref name=TimesObit>{{cite news|title=Kurt Waldheim: Austrian head of the UN who as president of his country was later tainted by charges of complicity in Nazi atrocities|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1934744.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523143546/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1934744.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 May 2011|work=[[The Times]]|location=London|date=15 June 2007|access-date=13 October 2008}}</ref> After publication, documents and witnesses came to light that revealed Waldheim's military service continued until 1945, during which time he rose to the rank of {{lang|de|[[Oberleutnant]]}}.

===Service in Yugoslavia and Greece===
Waldheim's functions within the staff of the [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|German Army]]'s [[Army Group E|Group E]] from 1942 until 1945, as determined by the International Commission of Historians,<ref>see page 39 of ''The Waldheim Report. Submitted 8 February 1988 to Federal Chancellor Dr. Franz Vranitzky''</ref> were:
* Interpreter and [[Officer (armed forces)|liaison officer]] with the [[5 Alpine Division Pusteria|5th Alpine Division (Italy)]] in [[Pljevlja]], [[Montenegro]] from 22 March 1942 to July 1942;
* ''O2'' (2nd Assistant Adjutant) to the ''1b'' (General Staff Quartermaster) with ''Kampfgruppe West'' in [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]] in June/August 1942,
* Interpreter with the liaison staff attached to the Italian [[Ninth Army (Italy)|9th Army]] in [[Tirana]] in early summer 1942;
* ''O1'' (1st Assistant Adjutant) to the ''1a'' (General Staff [[Operations (military staff)|Chief of Operations]]) in the German liaison staff with the Italian [[Eleventh Army (Italy)|11th Army]] and in the staff of the [[Army Group South]] in Greece in July/October 1943; and
* ''O3'' (3rd Assistant Adjutant) to the ''1c'' (General Staff [[Military intelligence|Chief Intelligence Officer]]) [[staff officer|officer on the staff]] of Army Group E in [[Panorama, Thessaloniki|Arsakli]], [[Kosovska Mitrovica]] and [[Sarajevo]] from October 1943 to January/February 1945.

By 1943, Waldheim was serving in the capacity of an [[aide-de-camp]] in Army Group E which was headed by General [[Alexander Löhr]], who would be executed as a war criminal in 1947.<ref>Walther-Peer Fellgiebel (2000), ''Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945''. Podzun-Pallas. {{ISBN|3-7909-0284-5}}</ref> In 1986, Waldheim said that he had served only as an interpreter and a clerk and had no knowledge either of reprisals against local [[Serbs|Serb]] civilians or of massacres in neighboring provinces of Yugoslavia. He said that he had known about some of the things that had happened, and had been horrified, but could not see what else he could have done.<ref name=TimesObit/>

Much historical interest has centred on Waldheim's role in [[Operation Kozara]] in 1942.<ref>{{cite news|work=The New York Times|date=15 June 2007|title=Kurt Waldheim|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/world/europe/15waldheim.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1|quote="Waldheim took part in, and was decorated for, Operation Kozara, a large-scale antipartisan operation involving mass reprisals – at the rate of 100 executions for every German killed – and mass deportations of Serb women and children to concentration camps."|first=Jonathan|last=Kandell|access-date=7 May 2010}}</ref> According to one post-war investigator, prisoners were routinely shot within only a few hundred metres (yards) of Waldheim's office,<ref name="dennis">{{cite journal|title=Kurt Waldheim: man of mystery |journal=Spokesman Magazine |date=1 May 2005 |author=Casey, Dennis |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0QUY/is_2005_May/ai_n15387360/pg_2/?tag=content;col1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111119100320/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0QUY/is_2005_May/ai_n15387360/pg_2/?tag=content%3Bcol1 |archive-date=19 November 2011}}</ref> and {{convert|35|km}} away at the [[Jasenovac concentration camp]]. Waldheim later stated that "he did not know about the murder of civilians there".<ref name="dennis"/>

Waldheim's name appears on the ''Wehrmacht''{{'}}s "honour list" of those responsible for the militarily successful operation. The Nazi puppet state, the [[Independent State of Croatia]], awarded Waldheim the [[Medal of the Crown of King Zvonimir]] in silver with an oak branches cluster.<ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/archive/1986/06/30/1986_06_30_065_TNY_CARDS_000345713 Letter from Europe: Vienna, 20 June] ''The New Yorker''</ref> Decades later, during the lobbying for his election as U.N. Secretary General, Yugoslav President [[Josip Broz Tito]], who had led the Yugoslav Partisans during the war, awarded Waldheim one of the highest Yugoslav orders, not knowing the details of his prior military service.<ref>{{cite news|title=Wir Österreicher wählen, wen wir wollen|language=de |work=[[Der Spiegel]]|date=14 April 1986|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13517709.html|quote=Staatschef Tito überreichte Waldheim trotzdem einen der höchsten jugoslawischen Orden [Anyhow, Tito awarded Waldheim with one of the highest Yugoslav orders].}}</ref>

Waldheim denied that he knew war crimes were taking place in Bosnia at the height of the battles between the Nazis and Tito's partisans in 1943.<ref name=telegraph>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1554545/Kurt-Waldheim.html|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|title=Kurt Waldheim|date=15 June 2007|access-date=7 May 2010}}</ref> According to [[Eli Rosenbaum]], in 1944, Waldheim reviewed and approved a packet of [[antisemitic]] propaganda leaflets to be dropped behind Soviet lines, one of which ended: "Enough of the Jewish war, kill the Jews, come over."<ref name="betrayal">Rosenbaum, EM with Hoffer W, ''Betrayal: The Untold Story of the Kurt Waldheim Investigation and Cover-Up'' St. Martin's Press, 1993, {{ISBN|0-312-08219-3}}, p. 338</ref>

In 1945, Waldheim surrendered to British forces in [[Carinthia (state)|Carinthia]], at which point he said he had fled his command post within Army Group E, where he was serving with General Alexander Löhr.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/WALDHEIM,%20KURT%20%20%20VOL.%201_0030.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123204329/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/WALDHEIM%2C%20KURT%20%20%20VOL.%201_0030.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 January 2017 |title=CIA Records on Kurt Waldheim |work=CIA Reading Room |date=11 July 1986}}</ref>