Springtime for Arnold.

The recent discussions of Arnold Schwarzenegger's feelings about Adolf Hitler--surprisingly, reporters failed to mention the Terminator's devotion to his friend the former Nazi officer Kurt Waldheim, who won an Iron Cross for Iris service to the Fuhrer--reminded me of one of the great mysteries of the modern era: How and why did Arnold's fellow Austrians escape their fair sham of accountability for their Nazi past? Today's Austrians may he splendid fellows, but the cheering mob that greeted Hitler in Vienna in 1938 was not a whit less fervent than the throngs of Germans who cheered him at Nuremberg or when he renamed to Berlin from a conquered France in 1940.

When Austrian Jews either died in concentration camps or were forced to flee the country, their property was taken over by Aryan Austrians, the great majority of whom refused to give it back after the war. Austria was totally freed of Allied occupation in 1955, 34 years before the last Soviet troops left Germany. Nazi Austria was treated better than Nazi Germany. Indeed, the world seemed to forget that Austria had embraced Hitler. It was not until a few years ago that American negotiators led by Stuart Eisenstadt got the Austrian government to finally acknowledge the nation's guilt by agreeing to pay $150 million in restitution for stolen Jewish property.