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Schwarnzenegger father nazi party { July 13 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/07/13/MN243790.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/07/13/MN243790.DTL
Schwarzenegger moves beyond his father's Nazi past
Robert Salladay, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, July 13, 2003
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback
Sacramento -- Gustav Schwarzenegger was a police officer and postal inspector in the tiny Austrian village of Thal.
In 1938, soon after Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss, he applied for membership in the Nazi Party and was accepted three years later.
This information is known because Gustav Schwarzenegger's son, Arnold, asked the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles to research his father's background in the late 1980s.
Some political operatives assume Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Nazi background" could haunt him in a potential gubernatorial campaign, but it's clear the actor and bodybuilder has rejected that part of Austrian history.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Wiesenthal Center, said Schwarzenegger has been a generous donor to the Jewish human rights organization -- "every time he does a movie, he writes a check" -- and has been granted its National Leadership Award for his humanitarian work.
"It's not a proud moment for anyone when you learn your father was a member of the Nazi Party," Hier said in an interview. "But Arnold is not his father, and Arnold has to be judged for who he is. I have always found him to be interested in the issues of the museum. He has been very friendly and supportive."
Hier said nothing could be found in Berlin archives that any war crimes or atrocities were committed by the actor's father, who remained in police service after the war and died in 1972. "He said whatever it is, he wanted to know about it," the rabbi said about Arnold Schwarzenegger. "He wanted to be in a position to know what the facts are."
Hier confirmed a story about former Austrian Freedom Party leader Joerg Haider visiting the Wiesenthal Center and seeing his picture on a "wall of shame" next to Uganda dictator Idi Amin and racist David Duke. Haider was outraged.
"He said he was going to complain to Arnold," Hier said.
According to press accounts, Arnold then checked out Haider's record -- including his statement that the Nazis had "sensible policies" -- and called Haider to say he belonged on the wall. He has denounced Haider on several occasions.
Schwarzenegger has been accused of associating with Nazis because he invited former Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, a German officer during World War II, to his 1986 wedding to Maria Shriver. Waldheim had lied about his association with the Nazi army unit, which was linked to atrocities in the Balkans.
"He probably did not have any clue as to the seriousness of the allegations against Waldheim at that time," Hier recently told the Jerusalem Post. "To suggest that Arnold's an anti-Semite is preposterous. He's done more to further the cause of Holocaust awareness than almost any other Hollywood star."
E-mail Robert Salladay at rsalladay@sfchronicle.com.
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