First World War: K.U.K. War Crimes
Report: Christa Hofmann
Camera: H. Drappal, Ch Ecker, F. Schrems
Cut: Carolin Hutle
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Inserts:
Anton Holzer at 2.20-2.26
Historian
Manfred Nowak at 3.58-4.10
Human rights
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20'51
Violence turns cowardice into wisdom, like water into wine wrote Karl Kraus of the First World War. (Click open)
20'59
In that brutal war innocent civilians were terrorised in their thousands in a practice which has continued until the present day.(click open)
21'06
These images show the darkest side of war.
21'13
These ornate Habsburg palaces are a reminder of an era many Austrians remember as their glorious heyday. Few know about the brutal war crimes committed in the name of the Habsburg Empire. During the First World War the eastern, Slavic parts of the Empire suffered terrible persecution. Thousands of innocent civilians were killed.
21'38
Historian Anton Holzer specialises in searching for images of the atrocities committed by Habsburg forces during the Great War. He is forced to travel across the world in his search, because the images are not welcome in Austria. Even here in Vienna's famous Heeresgeschichtlichen Museum there just a few.
22'01
... images like these:
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22'07
Thousands of civilians died as ethnic minorities were collectively held responsible for military defeats. They were accused of treason and murdered. And all this was keenly documented. Over and over again, Holzer shows us the smiling executioner.
22'19
Holzer OT
Holzer has brought the images together in his book.
22'28 (CU Holzer)
These pictures were passed on by soldiers to their families as evidence of their bravery and fearlessness, their ability to confront and humiliate the enemy.
22'41
A central characteristic of the images is the pleasure in violence which the men seem to display. There are clear parallels to images released of American atrocities in Abu Ghraib.
22'55
Holzer OT (slowly!)
My experience is that there is a pattern to extreme violence which these photographs show. You see this encircling of the victim, the camera reveals laughter, and a sense of power. Most commonly the victims in these pictures are civilians, not enemy combatants. When these pictures are circulated to a wider audience, we see that the violence becomes a fetish ...
23'26
Once those photos get into the public domain, it is possible to bring the perpetrators to justice. But strict censorship is often enforced during war. Censorship during the First World War is well documented, but it has also been applied by the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan.
23'45
U.S. TV networks held onto the Abu Ghraib images for weeks before releasing them. Pictures of killed or wounded US soldiers are rarely shown.
23.56
Pictures of dead Iraqis are not shown. In war reportage we see bullets fired.
24.06
but where they went, who they hit...we don't know.
24.15
It is not only media coverage that has suffered from the war on terror, human rights have also been hit. The Guantanamo Bay camp stands as a symbol: prisoners detained without charge, without legal rights, without Prisoner of War status. Human rights expert Manfred Nowak sees this as a worrying development.
24'35
Nowak OT
In the particular case of the Fight against Terror, what the U.S. and its European allies have done is disastrous. The effects of their actions can be modeled through it's negative effect on other states affected by terrorism. If the US can use torture, they have no right to criticise human rights abuses in Jordan or Sri Lanka or Indonesia.
24'59
During the First World War, we saw a war orignially concentratd on the front line, spread outwards to the hinterland. The use of terror against civilians became a fixed feature.
25'12
Holzer OT
Attacks against civilian populations did not start during the First World War and they it is certain that they did not end with the Armistice. All major war affects civilian population extremely badly, it is rare that official records show this, but it is a reality of war. These practices went on in the Second World War right across the world, they also occured in Vietnam, and during the contemporary wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
25'34
Nowak OT
Most international wars are not solely between soldiers. They are also wars which involve civilians. And very sadly this tendency is only increasing with modern styles of warfare. It must be made clear to the global community that human rights are extremely important, and never more so than during time of war.
26.01
The reality is often very differnt. This exhibition about the crimes of the Wehrmacht documents the systematic use of terror by the Nazis against civilian populations.
26.17
Vietnam: American use of Napalm. Napalm caused terrible damage to both soldiers and civilians.
26.26
The genocide in Bosnia, only a few hours flight from Europe's biggest cities.
26.33
A war on civilians before the gaze of the world: expulsions, executions and rape. A situation that Europe vowed would never happen again after the terrors of World War II.
26.47
OT Nowak
Zum ersten mal in der Geschichte der Menschheit, dass im Zuge von ethnischen Säuberungen ganz bewußt Vergewaltigungen eingesetzt wurden, nicht nur zur Demütigung der Frau, sondern mit dem Ziel, dass diese Frau diese Kind zur Welt bringt. Das dann in der moslemischen Gemeinschaft nicht willkommen war, die Frauen haben das Kind abgegeben, wir haben jetzt das Problem dieser Kinder, die sind jetzt 16/17 Jahre alt.
Nowak OT
For the first time in the history of mankind, rapes was deliberately used in the wake of ethnic cleansing, not only for the humiliation of women, but to increase the population of one particular community. But the Muslim community rejected the babies that were born from these rapes. Now we have to deal with the traumas of these children who are now 16 or 17.
27'19 (very close to Nowak OT)
The trauma continues - for generations.
27'24
In Bosnia, as in Iraq war creates misery for civilian populations
27'33
Likewise in Afghanistan - even if terror against the civilian population is not direct. Collateral damage is an inevitable consequence of American reluctance to endanger their soldiers. Civilians pay a heavy toll in aerial bombardments.
27'49
And even when war is over, it is hard to find peace. After conflict, everything changes. There is fear on one hand, hatred on the other.
27'58
Nowak OT
In the way that we deal with refugees or migrants that come to Europe needs to improve. We have built a fortress: people who come because they are poor or persecuted are treated as second class citizens.