1943: The Moscow Declaration
Call for resistance and basis of the "victim thesis"
In the second half of October 1943, the foreign ministers of the USA, the Soviet Union and England (Cordell Hull, Wjatscheslaw Michailowitsch Molotow und Robert Anthony Eden) met in Moscow to exchange initial considerations for a post-war order. On October 30, the Moscow Declaration was passed, and it was published two days later. A crucial passage is dedicated to Austria, which was to re-emerge as an independent state after the war as the “first free country to fall prey to Hitler’s characteristic policy of aggression”. After 1945, Austria’s so-called “victim myth” was based on this passage.
The declaration, however, also recalls Austria’s responsibility for participating in the war and points out that Austria will also be judged by “how much it will have contributed to its own liberation”.
The goal was to motivate resistance against Nazism. While the Allies relied on an unconditional surrender from Germany, in the case of Austria it was hoped that the positive formulation would result in partial cooperation from the population in defeating Nazism.
Das könnte Sie auch interessieren (8)
