Experts explained why Hitler’s slogans were turned on in the Austrian train

“Nazism disguises itself under the mask of patriotism”

The search for those responsible for Sunday’s provocation, when passengers of the train were listened to Hitler’s speech on the speakerphone, continues in Austria. The transport company itself denies that Nazi slogans and other statements sounded from the speakers, which individual passengers managed to understand verbatim.

MK, together with experts, found out whether this event was so accidental.

Recall that on May 14, the passengers of the train, which followed from Bregenz to Vienna, experienced a shock when they heard Nazi greetings over the loudspeaker. The incident occurred on the section of the route between St. Polten and Vienna.

The company “Austrian Federal Railways” stressed that the cause of the incident is being established, and the company intends to eliminate this “technical failure”, but it is still not known who provoked it.

“It cannot be said that Austria is the cradle of Nazism, but these sentiments have always been, are and will be in the country,” says historian Oleg Afanasiev. – Long before the country joined the Third Reich in 1938, radical sentiments had already gained strength there.

It turns out that ideas based on a mixture of nationalism and socialism began to circulate in Austria as early as the 1860s. And the Austrian forerunner of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party – the German Workers’ Party was established back in the “golden period” of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1903.

Of course, after the Second World War, there were fewer Nazis in Austria. But they still were, the expert continues. And with them, I must admit, they acted very humanely. In April 1948, the Austrian authorities, at the initiative of the Soviet administration, issued a law on amnesty for ordinary Nazis. 482,000 members of the banned party were restored to their rights, even electoral ones.

“There are almost no countries left in Europe where radical nationalists would not be represented at least at the local legislative level,” says political scientist Nikolai Bakhirev. – In Austria, where their number in the 1930s was 17% of the adult population, there are now. And their movement is becoming more and more popular. I am sure that all this time Hitler did not cease to be their idol. Now Nazism disguises itself under the mask of patriotism and actively flirts with the youth. It seems to me that even according to the most conservative estimates, there are already eight percent of radicals in Europe – every twelfth.