Prague (kath.net/KAP) Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg valued the late Otto Habsburg as "an important Europe-oriented and interesting person". It should not be forgotten, "that he knew from the beginning, what Hitler really was", said Scharzenberg in an interview.
Already as a young man, the Habsburg aligned himself against the NS Dictator. That the military occupation of Austria was launched under the cover name of "Operation Otto", indicates that "the Nazis knew that he was their primary foe."
Even the service of the deceased to a more closely integrated Europe is unforgettable, said the Chief of Czech Diplomacy. Habsburg had "fought most courageously for all our Nations and peoples, who were in his time imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain."
Even people like Jiri Pelikan, who sat in the European Parliament for the Italian Socialist Party, had spoken of Otto as a man, "who knew his stuff and worked with complete competence".
Schwarzenberg recalled also that this would be one of the last people who had a constitutional function "in the old Monarchy": "We must not forget that he was the Crown Prince of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia."
The deceased had a "colossal joy", as he received an honorary citizenship of the City of Brandys nad Labem. The Castle of Brandeis on the Elbe is "the most favorite rest stop for his beloved father", he wanted to acquire it in order to make it the family home.
Brandys nad Labem is today a center for the honor of the Beautified Emperor Karl in the Czech Republic and forms with the Pilgrimage site Stara Boleslav, the place of the Martyrdom of St. Wenzel, a twin city. Pope Benedict XVI. visited Stara Boleslav in 2009 and celebrated an open air Mass in a meadow near Castle Brandeis.
The news "Lidove noviny" concluded the interview with Foreign Minister Schwarzberg, that had Otto von Habsburg gained the throne, then he would have been a Bohemian King with the longest reign. As a long serving member of the European Parliament he had aimed toward the integration of the post-Communist nations in the European and Atlantic structures.
Special mention is also to be made of his efforts to support the Czech side with the displaced South Germans [Suddeten] and for the annulment of the Benes Decree. In this connection he "did not rarely criticize the politicians of the Czech Republic, who considered his activities to be conflicting."
Link here...kath.net original...
Not sure what Amemus Amnesium is going on about at AQ, but he seems to be disagreeing with the Foreign Minister's contention about Otto Habsburg being Hitler's most significant and dangerous foe. Sometimes it's hard to decipher what this poster is talking about because he doesn't always address himself to the question, and is often more interested in his own nationalist concerns, like raising awareness about how the Sudetenland Germans were treated. Apparently, he's still upset over how Otto Habsburg favored the Czech government over the claims of the Suddeten Germans, than he is about the actual article.
So, Otto Habsburg was sent to Dachau, that's interesting. Didn't know that:
Bad translation.
1. Otto von Habsburg supported the annulment of the illegitimate and genocidal Benes decrees (plural form) which from 1945 until today declare as lawless the ethnic Germans (or Sudeten Germans, not 'south Germans') of Bohemia, Moravia and formerly Austrian (southern) Silesia.
2. I am surprised Karl Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, now a Czech minister of Foreign Affairs, would mention this. It seems the Czech people and Czech politicians with their anti-German popular agitation against the Sudeten German victims are now slowly changing their minds.
3. Otto von Habsburg was not a primary target of the Nazis, although he was one of the targets. So was Kurt von Schussnig. And he also survived the war in a privileged [so you say]concentration camp of Dachau.
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