WORLD : Britain Exonerates Waldheim
LONDON — The Ministry of Defense has concluded that Austrian President Kurt Waldheim was not responsible for the executions of six British commandos in World War II, although he probably was aware of them, Britain’s domestic news agency reported today.
Press Assn. quoted a report from an 18-month investigation as saying Waldheim, as a junior officer, could not be held responsible for the executions.
He had been accused of complicity in the murders of the British troops captured off the Turkish coast in April, 1944. The troops were taken to Arsakli near Salonica, Greece, for interrogation at the headquarters of a German intelligence unit where Waldheim was a junior officer. The six commandos refused to talk and were shot by a firing squad.
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