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Report: 180 Jews murdered at party in Austrian castle in 1945
By Assaf Uni, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel, Nazis, Holocaust

BERLIN - A few weeks before the end of the Second World War, as the Soviet Red Army was swiftly approaching the borders of Germany, SS men held a party inn an ancient castle by the Austrian town of Rechnitz. The party, held to mark the eve of Easter, March 24, 1945, was hosted by a baroness who owned the castle and was a member of one of the wealthiest families in Europe.

According to a report published in the German Newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung," at the height of the party, some 200 Jews were taken from the dungeons of the castle to a nearby silo. The Jews, who were kept in the dungeons, worked on the fortifications of the nearby town of Lasem.
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At some point, party organizers handed out pistols and clubs to the drunken revelers and invited them to kill the Jews herded into the silo.

Over the course of the evening, 180 Hungarian Jews were murdered and buried in a mass grave.

British Historian David Lichtfield discovered the story of the party while researching a book he was writing entitled "They Thyssen Art Massacre."

Lichtfield revealed the story last Thursday in "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung."

German historians have responded to Lichtenstein's findings by stating that there is no basis to the story that the party was held at the castle, or that Jews were mass murdered or buried in a mass grave on its premises.

Professor Wolfgang Benz, an expert on anti-Semitism, stated Sunday on German radio that Lichtfield's version of events is "illogical." A 1994 Austrian film about the party, "Wall of Silence," depicted the filmmakers attempts to find the mass grave, to no avail.

Lichtfield was hired by the baroness's brother to write his biography, but after the brother's death, an unnamed European playboy and art collector persuaded Lichtfield not to publish the story
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  1.   Justification for Dresden 14:03  |  Murray of Montreal 22/10/07
  2.   Revisiting History (rewriting as necessary) 14:12  |  Natallie Durson 22/10/07
  3.   Shooting party? 14:13  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 22/10/07
  4.   It should be against EU-Law to deny this story 14:25  |  Zach 22/10/07
  5.   #1, Murray of Montreal 14:43  |  Anton 22/10/07
  6.   Calm down 14:55  |  David Hawkins 22/10/07
  7.   Difference? 14:56  |  North American 22/10/07
  8.   Durson #2 - just does not get it 14:58  |  Avrum 22/10/07
  9.   Daniel Goldhagen`s book: "Hitler`s Willing Executioners" 15:01  |  Yitzhak 22/10/07
  10.   #2 is right 15:09  |  Izzy 22/10/07
  11.   #4 Zach 15:13  |  Boycott 22/10/07
  12.   In Mauthausen conc. camp 500 Dutch Jews were thrown off a cliif 15:18  |  PETER SM 22/10/07
  13.   #11, Zach 15:25  |  Anton 22/10/07
  14.   PETER SM 15:27  |  Anton 22/10/07
  15.   hint 15:44  |  Axel 22/10/07
  16.   Google this 15:54  |  Daniello 22/10/07
  17.   THE GERMANS ARE STILL IN DENIAL........NOT GOOD!! 15:56  |  David P 22/10/07
  18.   Thyssen-Batthiany 16:03  |  michael 22/10/07
  19.   to nr 7 16:03  |  ophthalmologist 22/10/07
  20.   Thank you, Europe, for attitude towards us, then and, I am sad to 16:05  |  Albert 22/10/07
  21.   Austrians 16:06  |  sweis Melbourne 22/10/07
  22.   Blind Durson 16:07  |  ophthalmologist 22/10/07
  23.   Natalie Durson 16:08  |  H 22/10/07
  24.   Don`t worry AXEL will be along shortly 16:09  |  * BEN JABO 22/10/07
  25.   #15, Daniello on LICHTfield 16:10  |  Anton 22/10/07
  26.   180 Jews in Austria 16:16  |  siegfried buchwalte 22/10/07
  27.   #16, David P 16:19  |  Anton 22/10/07
  28.   Sorry, but I do not see the relevance of this article 16:27  |  Mark B. 22/10/07
  29.   @17 David P. on Germans 16:30  |  Mark B. 22/10/07
  30.   I Agree With Mark B. 16:57  |  Yosemite 22/10/07
  31.   Absolutely, Anton 16:58  |  Adam 22/10/07
  32.   To michael of Germany 17:16  |  Historian 22/10/07
  33.   Mark B@28 17:20  |  Realistic 22/10/07
  34.   To ophthalmologist 17:21  |  Logician 22/10/07
  35.   # 16 david p 17:24  |  Axel 22/10/07
  36.   To H of London 17:24  |  Curious 22/10/07
  37.   Natallie Durson wants to be a Nazi 17:26  |  Yaakov 22/10/07
  38.   #2 Nutallie Durson 17:50  |  Sol 22/10/07
  39.   Logics & ophtalmology 18:17  |  Marco 22/10/07
  40.   whiitewashing Austria 18:22  |  sweis Melbourne 22/10/07
  41.   Mme Durson 18:25  |  Miransky 22/10/07
  42.   Games Germans play 18:32  |  Jonathan S 22/10/07
  43.   #19 ophtha... 18:36  |  North American 22/10/07
  44.   re: siegfried buchwalte 18:41  |  David 22/10/07
  45.   Sweis in Melbourne is correct 18:42  |  Jonathan S 22/10/07
  46.   #7 North American "Difference?" 18:59  |  Clarence Darrow 22/10/07
  47.   The Germans 19:11  |  Max Mishkin 22/10/07
  48.   #31 Why offer them page/mike/site? 19:25  |  3-ha-ha 22/10/07
  49.   It appears that despite all the efforts made, we 19:42  |  Petra 22/10/07
  50.   #9: Yitzhak on Goldhagen 20:10  |  Edith 22/10/07
  51.   The Spiegel article 20:13  |  Rolland 22/10/07
  52.   The killer countess: The dark past of Baron Heinrich Thyssen`s da 20:21  |  Rolland 22/10/07
  53.   Anton 20:23  |  Marco Benatar 22/10/07
  54.   1 slippery slope 20:30  |  0 Degrees 22/10/07
  55.   Like the lynchings in Ramallah? 20:30  |  Scharker Yid 22/10/07
  56.   Mass killing by white europeans n 20:30  |  omolll 22/10/07
  57.   Natalie 20:33  |  gregdn 22/10/07
  58.   Difference 20:38  |  Larry 22/10/07
  59.   #2, "every single Israeli Jew killed" 20:47  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 22/10/07
  60.   the "party" 20:51  |  Shmuelshachor 22/10/07
  61.   #58 Larry 21:08  |  North American 22/10/07
  62.   #46 Clarence 21:11  |  North American 22/10/07
  63.   # 59 Cipora Julianna Kohn 21:17  |  Traude 22/10/07
  64.   Re #1; Dresden and all the responses to it. 21:34  |  Helene White 22/10/07
  65.   Red meat for paranoids, and a money maker 21:37  |  Tosefta 22/10/07
  66.   GERMAN`S HAVE CENTURIES OF REPENTENCE AHEAD OF THEM 21:39  |  David P 22/10/07
  67.   Murray of Montreal - Dresden was a war crime 21:49  |  Monger 22/10/07
  68.   ANTON Germany has been very honest,forthright & made reparations 21:50  |  PETER SM 22/10/07
  69.   # 61 david 21:55  |  Axel 22/10/07
  70.   Cipora, do the math for Palestinians now 21:57  |  Tim 22/10/07
  71.   to the "american" on #7 22:05  |  Shmuelshachor 22/10/07
  72.   #5 Anton has an abundance of gall 22:15  |  Clarence Darrow 22/10/07
  73.   TIM How manymillions would be dead if you compared Israeli dead 22:16  |  PETER S.M. 22/10/07
  74.   TOSEFTA Re red meat.You seem to find something of value in 22:20  |  PETER S.M. 22/10/07
  75.   Edith 22:32  |  sweis Melbourne 22/10/07
  76.   Edith 22:32  |  sweis Melbourne 22/10/07
  77.   Justification for Dresden? 22:34  |  Marcellus 22/10/07
  78.   #67 Monger 22:34  |  Murray of Montreal 22/10/07
  79.   Humans are beasts 22:37  |  Penny 22/10/07
  80.   # 60 What a bunch of nonsense! 22:41  |  Frank 22/10/07
  81.   Message #50 about the good intentions of Europeans 22:53  |  Yitzhak 22/10/07
  82.   Nazi atrocities are hardly news 23:04  |  Michael II 22/10/07
  83