Exhibition sparks clashes in Vienna

Left-wing groups say Austria has to rethink its wartime past

Several thousand left-wing demonstrators have clashed with police in the Austrian capital, Vienna, as they tried to disrupt a protest by far-right groups against an exhibition that blames the German army, the Wehrmacht, for World War II atrocities.

Far-right groups say the show contains numerous falsehoods

Throwing bottles and stones, and chanting "Nazis out", the demonstrators tried to break through police barricades into Vienna's historic square, Heldenplatz, where about 100 far-right activists were staging their protest.

Police used water cannon to disperse the left-wing groups, who have strongly criticised the authorities' decision to allow the protest to go ahead on Heldenplatz, where in 1938 vast crowds cheered Adolf Hitler's annexation of Austria.

The far-right protesters said they wanted to defend the memory of more than one million Austrian soldiers who fought for the Wehrmacht, claiming that the exhibition's evidence contained numerous falsehoods.

About 800 police officers with dogs and riot gear were deployed, and a police spokesman said there had been several arrests.

Controversial exhibition

The exhibition challenges the widely-held belief, particularly among Germans, that the Nazi SS and Gestapo were exclusively responsible for such atrocities.

It provides documentary and photographic evidence to support the view that between 1941 and 1944, the Nazi German army systematically starved, tortured and murdered civilians on the Eastern front.

When the exhibition was first staged in Germany and Austria in 1995, it was engulfed by disputes over its accuracy, and was withdrawn two years later when some of its photographs were shown to be fakes.

The new show was put together by 11 historians whose decisions were vetted by a panel of experts.

It places less emphasis on photographic evidence and includes sections showing that in some - albeit rare cases - army officers did refuse to carry out their orders.

These changes were not enough to prevent demonstrations by right-wing extremists in Berlin and other German cities when the new exhibition opened late last year.

When it opened in Berlin, police used water cannon, tear gas and batons to keep apart extremist groups.

Vienna's Jewish community has distanced itself from the left-wing demonstration, saying that its rhetoric has fuelled anti-semitism in Austria.