Outrage on election night at funeral with Nazi song – DW – September 29, 2024

The singing of a song with a Nazi past at a funeral in Vienna, Austria, sparked outrage on Friday as Austria prepares for a general election in which the far-right is expected to make big gains.

Three well-known members of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) attended the funeral, where “When Everyone Becomes Unfaithful” was sung.

Video appears to show FPÖ politicians

Austrian daily newspaper The standard reported on Saturday that the FPÖ politicians Martin Graf, Harald Stefan and Norbert Nemeth were present at the funeral of a former FPÖ politician.

It was unclear whether they had sung along to the song, which dates back to 1814 but was glorified during the Nazi era.

The standard released a preserved video showing people attending a funeral in a cemetery and standing near a grave singing Max von Schenkendorf’s song.

The words contain a line with a sentence that translates as “wanting to preach and speak about the Holy German Empire.”

The song was adopted and glorified by the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) as the “Song of Loyalty”. The Nazi resistance also sang the song.

The SS was a paramilitary organization that supported Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and helped carry out deliberate murders of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

The Austrian Jewish Students’ Association said it had reported the incident to the public prosecutor’s office and called it an “alarm signal for Austria.”

Incident condemned on the eve of the Austrian elections

The incident occurred on the eve of the Austrian national elections, in which the right-wing extremists are leading in opinion polls.

However, parties across the political landscape have condemned the video.

“The FPÖ proves once again that it is right-wing extremist,” said Justice Minister Alma Zadic, a member of the Green Party.

The right-wing populist party is once again “showing its radicalized face,” said Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) on its website.

The Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the liberal NEOS also expressed similar views.

The German news agency DPA reported that FPÖ representatives shown in the video did not respond to contact.

The party condemned the reactions to the video on the grounds that it was a “political misuse of the video of the funeral of a private individual, over which the FPÖ has no influence.”

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kb/rmt (dpa, AFP)