Ex-Nazi Waldheim gives foreign relations prize

A former Wehrmacht lieutenant, a certain Kurt Waldheim, has arrived in Lebanon.

Those who enjoy the "where-are-they-now?" school of journalism may be interested to know that the ex-intelligence officer of the Nazi army's Kampfgruppe Westbosnien – for the former UN secretary general and Austrian president spent part of the Second World War in Bosnia – has endowed an annual academic prize in his own name, for a student or researcher at the Lebanese University who wins a contest in international relations.

Mr Waldheim managed, in his own thesis (University of Vienna) to recall only his military service in Russia and omitted his role in the Wehrmacht's Army Group E, whose commander, General Löhr, was executed for war crimes.

Some horrific crimes took place in Yugoslavia, where Bosnia became part of the pro-Nazi Croatian Ustashi's territory. Although he denied knowledge of atrocities against Serbs and Jews in Yugoslavia, one of his intelligence offices was metres away from an execution ground and a few miles from an extermination camp.

In Berlin archives, an Austrian researcher found the account of an interrogation of a British commando captured in the Balkans. It was signed "W" in Mr Waldheim's own hand. He always denied he interrogated the man, who was later killed by the Gestapo.

The first "Waldheim Award" will be granted at the Lebanese University's school of dentistry today. In international relations, of course.