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Politician goes mostly unnoticed
Posted: Sunday November 07, 1999 05:27 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Running with friends and bodyguards in the middle of the pack, controversial Austrian politico Joerg Haider slipped past the 10-mile mark of the New York Marathon apparently unnoticed by a group of Austrian students protesting his hard-line policies. Choosing as their venue a street corner in Williamsburg, one of Brooklyn's most concentrated Jewish neighborhoods, the dozen or so demonstrators held signs reading, "Haider is not a running gag," "Stop the ratcatcher on his run for power," and "1938 reasons against Austria's Haider." The latter message referred to the year of "anschluss," Adolf Hitler's annexation of Austria into Greater Germany. Haider, the son of a Nazi party member and head of Austria's ultra-right Freedom Party, has come under attack by Israeli and American Jews for having expressed views sympathetic toward Hitler's "decent employment policies" and praising Waffen SS veterans as "men of character." Two of the Austrian students in New York, Hermann Zwanzgen and Thomas Geisler, said they decided to protest "against his policy, against his intolerance," especially toward immigrants. "He is using the scapegoat image, he is blaming immigrants for almost everything," said Martin Hovath, the demonstration's chief organizer. Although Haider's plan to run in the marathon had drawn complaints from some Jewish leaders, the students' message seemed lost on most of the area's black-clad Hasidic Orthodox Jews, many of whom were dismissive of the entire issue. Some said they'd never heard of Haider. "It doesn't bother our community. We don't mix into this business," Sol Klein said. "As long as he does nothing to us, as long as he's in Austria, let him do what he wants," Aaron Moskowitz said. "Let him run his breath out." Insurance agent David Weinberg stood on the corner cracking jokes, and shrugged when asked about Haider. "Who knows how many guys in the New York City government had fathers who were Nazis?" he said. Despite his number, 5777, having been widely circulated among the news media, Haider was all but lost in the rush of legs, arms and bodies as the main pack of the 30,000 runners passed the 10-mile mark. The protesters, squinting into the sun, did not spot the man in the fluroescent orange cap and blue shirt running alongside a cop with an NYPD logo his chest, and it was unclear whether Haider noticed them as he passed. "I don't know. I haven't spoken with him," said Peter Sichrovsky, a Freedom Party colleague of Haider's, speaking by phone from Los Angeles. Haider, a veteran marathoner and one of several Austrian officials in the race, reached the Central Park finish line in under four hours. Surrounded by bodyguards, he was quickly driven away by limousine, telling reporters only that he had a "good run." With a schedule listed as private on Monday, it was not known whether Haider intended to hold a widely rumored meeting with New York Jewish leaders. Isaac Abraham, a spokesman for Brooklyn's large Hasidic community, who had suggested such a meeting, said he did not know if one was scheduled. Sichrovsky earlier told reporters in Washington that Jewish leaders in Williamsburg had invited him to a meeting, adding that "we are very happy that there are so many groups who want to talk to us." At a Washington, D.C. news conference last week, Haider called himself a "pure democrat" with no fascist or Nazi leanings, and said the Freedom Party has "no sympathy for the dark time of the Nazi period."
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