Schwarzeneggers Father a Nazi?

[HaThorAtor]

Your discussion about the SA membership of Arnold Schwarzeneggers father, Gustav Schwarzenegger, has reached Austrian public and press Die Presse.

Some informations for you from the official broadcasting company ORF:

Arnold Schwarzenegger himself ordered a checkup of his fathers past by the "Simon Wiesenthal Center" in LA and it resulted negative.

Gustav Schwarzenegger entered SA one year after the "Reichskristallnacht" in 1939. At this time - when it was nearly impossible to make any kind of career in the "Reich" without joining the Nazi - this was a way not to get drafted to the fighting army "Reichswehr" on Hitlers Poland attack but to be attached to the "Feldjaeger" (Military Police) units. So did Gustav Schwarzenegger.

As far as the "Simon Wiesenthal Center" investigated, he kept quite a low profile.

The year he joined the SA, 1939, does not point to a convinced Nazi but to a copurchaser who just took the existing chances of how to avoid being member of the fighting troops. His highest rank was the one of a "First Sergeant".

Gustav Schwarzenegger died in 1972 as "Postenkommandant" (Chief of a policestation) in Austrian Steiermark where he applied for after Worldwar II. Arnold Schwarzenegger who always kept distanced to his father's convictions and opinions did not appear at his funeral.

So I am not concerned about his father's relationship to Nazis, but much more concerned about the fact, that he is an actor. Actors do have directors you cannot see. And as a Republican his directors are the same as the ones of GWB, whose grandfather was much more convoluted in Nazi affairs than Gustav Schwarzenegger ever was.

Greetings from Good Old Europe

[lebkuchen]

1. Calling the discussion a "smear campaign" is far-fetched

though I think it's only natural that an Austrian paper would come to the aid of one of its own.

It's also natural for Americans to want to know more about their candidates, especially one who was not born in the US and is hoping to takeover the 6th largest economy in the world. Since Mr. Schwarzenegger himself has brought nothing to the discussion of politics nor the California economic situation and how to remedy it, which is supposedly the reason for the recall in the first place, voters are perplexed as to why he is running and what his background is.

Your basic "google" search for "Schwarzenegger" will bring up all sorts of information hitherto unknown about the candidate which are a matter of public record. His father being a Nazi is naturally going to raise eyebrows. This site has provided detailed research of its own, and most posters have found his father's background to be a "nonissue" in the campaign. His interview for "Oui" magazine, however, is another story.

Mr. Schwarzenegger has admitted to the interview, then denied it. His "waffling" causes a voter to wonder about his ability to be truthful. For example, he said he had his own money to run the campaign and didn't need to rely on and be beholden to big business. Yet, he is in fact taking money from big business, and big business will be expecting payback. Mr. Schwarzenegger is creating his own problems by not being honest, so let's not point the finger at political internet sites because the public is having doubts about the GOP's #1 candidate.

Many of us here are now waiting for Mr. Schwarzenegger's apology to women and gays with regard to his comments in "Oui."

Thank you for your interesting post. Now I know why I try not to swear on this site. One never knows when it's going to go international. :)

By the way, can you provide me the name of a good place in Austria to celebrate Christmas or New Year?

Thanks!

[Name removed]

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[izzie]

3. There is always some who will play the game to get ahead.

Heck the Bushs were big movers in a womens rights but sold that out when Reagon asked Father Bush to come on the team.Mon. for Tue not for. These people know how to get ahead. I am not sure we would not all sell out. It is most likly the price the counts. There have been interesting studies done on all this. To do the right thing because it is right is a hard thing to stick to.

[Jackie97]

4. I don't blame any of that on him....

He can't help who his father was.

Neither he, nor the Republican party can help the fact that the Bush's have a nasty history with the Nazis and have shown anti-semitism ever since then.

Right now, I'll just judge him by his politics itself, which don't seem to be very enlightening.

[oldshoe]

7. Agreed

My parents are die-hard GOP, and I'd hate to have that held against me. While all have to carry our our burdens, we call leave our original nest to become who we are.

Judge Arnold for his own character, whatever it is.

[eridani]

8. More important than who his parents were

...is who he's in bed with now.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081903G.shtml

More important, however, Schwarzenegger still won’t respond to questions about why he was at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills two years ago where he, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and junk bond king Michael Milken, met secretly with former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay who was touting a plan for solving the state’s energy crisis. Other luminaries who were invited but didn’t attend the May 24, 2001 meeting included former Los Angeles Laker Earvin “Magic” Johnson and supermarket magnate Ron Burkle.

What’s unknown to many of the voters who will decide Davis’s fate on Oct. 7, the day of the recall election, is that while Cheney dismissed Davis’s accusations that power companies were withholding electricity supplies from the state, one company engaged in exactly the type of behavior that Davis described. But Davis would never be told about the manipulative tactics the energy company engaged.