1 Paul Grosz, “A Jewish View of the Anschluss and the Second Republic,” in Austria, 1938-1988: Anschluss and Fifty Years, ed. William Wright (Riverside, Calif.: Ariadne Press, 1995), 264.
2 See Frankl, “Selbstmordprophylaxe und Jugendberatung,” Münchner Medizinische Wochenschrift, 4 Oct. 1929: 1675.
3 Viktor Frankl, “Wirtschaftskrise und Seelenleben vom Standpunkte des Jugendberaters,” Sozialärztliche Rundschau, no. 3 (1933): 45.
4 Viktor Frankl, Was nicht in meinen Büchern steht (Munich: Quintessenz, 1995), 48.
5 For unknown reasons, Pötzl had his application reconsidered and redated to January 1941. See, Pötzl’s Nazi Party file available at the Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes.
6 See, Index of Psychiatric Krankenhaus Baumgartnerhöhe 1934-1938, Wien Landes Stadt Archiv.
7 See Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie, no. 10 (1937): 7-8.
8 See Geoffrey Cocks, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich: The Göring Institute (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 116.
9 Viktor Frankl, “Zur Geistigen Problematik der Psychotherapie,” Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie, no. 10 (1937): 33-45.
10 Viktor Frankl, “Seelenärztliche Selbstbesinnung,” Der christliche Ständestaat, 30 Jan. 1938: 8.
11 See Timothy Pytell, “The Genesis of Viktor Frankl’s Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy,” The Psychoanalytic Review 88, no. 2 (April 2001): 311-34.
12 See Timothy Pytell “The Missing Pieces of the Puzzle: A Reflection on the Odd Career of Viktor Frankl,” Journal of Contemporary History 35, no. 2 (2000): 281 – 306, specifically 291-95.
13 Apparently his good friend Paul Polak had kept an original copy of the unfinished manuscript in hiding during the war and gave it to Frankl upon his return.
14 Frankl claimed he dictated Man’s Search for Meaning in nine days. See Frankl, Was nicht in meinen Büchern steht, 83.
15 In 1918, with the treaty of St. Germain, and in 1943, with the Moscow Agreement, (the latter claimed Austria was the first victim of Nazism) the “state” of Austria was determined by diplomatic resolutions amongst the victorious powers.
16 In May 1933, after Hitler’s seizure of power in Germany, the socialists removed the clause for a union with Germany from their platform. But as the archive footage reveals, there was little or no resistance to the 1938 “Anschluss” by the Austrian people. For an excellent discussion of these issues see, Richard Mitten, The Politics of Anti-Semitic Prejudice (Boulder, Co.: Westview, 1992), 12-17. Also see Evan Bukey, Hitler’s Austria: Popular Sentiment in the Nazi Era, 1938-1945 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000).
17 For an excellent discussion of these issues see, Günter Bischof, “Victims? Perpetrators? ‘Punching Bags’ of European Historical Memory? The Austrians and Their World War II Legacies,” German Studies Review 27, no. 1 (2004): 17-32. Also the earlier, Fritz Fellner, “The Problem of the Austrian Nation after 1945,” Journal of Modern History 60, no. 2 (1988): 264-89.
18 On why Stalin failed to gain control of Austria, and the political motivations behind America’s accepting the “myth” of Austria’s victimization, and the subsequent abandoning of the de-Nazification of Austria, see, Harry Piotrowski, “The Soviet Union and the Renner Government of Austria, April-November 1945,” Central European History 20, no. 3-4 (1987): 246-79.
19 The longstanding political conservatism in Austria is exemplified by Dollfuß’ subduing of the workers in February 1934, and the defeat of the Nazi coup by the Austrian state after Dollfuß’s assassination in July of 1934. In both events the forces for an “Austrian order” defeated the political aspirations of both the left and right. In sum, the absence of a positive democratic tradition makes the political foundations of the second republic very shaky. For a useful overview see Melanie Sully, A Contemporary History of Austria (New York: Routledge, 1990), 110-15. Also Oliver Rathkolb, The Paradoxical Republic: Austria 1945-2005 (New York: Berghahn Books, 2010) especially “Peculiarities of Austrian Democracy,” 30-54.
20 For an excellent discussion of these issues see, Mitten, The Politics of Antisemitic Prejudice, especially “When ‘the Past’ Catches Up,” 246-61. Also see Peter Utgaard, Remembering and Forgetting Nazism: Education, national Identity and the Victim Myth in Postwar Austria (New York: Bergahn Books, 2003) especially “Part III: The End of the Austria-as-Victim Myth? Official Memory Since 1986,” 161-97.
21 The FPÖ was originally the League of Independents formed in 1949. The League was made up of ex-Nazis, Monarchists, and other right leaning figures. Most commentators considered Haider a political opportunist and not a neo-Nazi. But there was a political philosophy that was seemingly anti-democratic, anti-capitalist and authoritarian behind his opportunism. For example his disdain for “foreigners,” his hatred of “corrupt” government, his proclaimed desire to remain isolated from the European union, his call for a third republic were all suggestive of an extreme agenda. See, Jörg Haider, Die Freiheit, die ich meine (Vienna: Ulstein, 1993). For a discussion of these issues and a history of the party see, Max Riedlsperger, “FPÖ: Liberal or Nazi?,” Conquering the Past: Austrian Nazism, Yesterday and Today, ed. Fred Parkinson, (Indiana: Wayne State University, 1989), 257-75. Also see Tony Judt, “Austria & the Ghost of the New Europe,” New York Review of Books, 15 Feb. 1996, 22-25. For a more moderate and sympathetic view of Haider see Lothar Höbelt, Defiant Populist: JÖrg Haider and the Politics of Austria, (West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2003).
22 On these issues see Robert Wistrich, Austrians and Jews in the Twentieth Century: from Franz Joseph to Waldheim (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), especially Robert Knight, “” Neutrality,” not Sympathy: Jews in Post-War Austria,” 220-33, and in the same volume Robert Wistrich, “The Kreisky Phenomenon: A Reassessment,” 234-51.
23 Viktor Frankl, “Wien und die Seelenheilkunde,” Wiener Kurier, 23 March 1946, 11.
24 See Viktor Frankl, “Über Lehrbarkeit und Lernbarkeit der Psychotherapie,” Neurologie und Psychiatrie: Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Otto PÖtzl, ed. Hurbert Urban (Innsbruck: Wagner, 1949) 222-29. In this piece Frankl claimed that the school of psychotherapy was of less importance than the personality of the physician and his approach to the patient.
25 Although, Else Pappenheim, who worked at the university clinic under Pötzl until the Anschluss, recalled no special relationship between Frankl and Pötzl. This information was given by Else Pappenheim during an interview with the author on 15 July 1996 in New York City.
26 Viktor Frankl, “Synchronisation in Birkenwald,” translated by Joseph Fabry (unpublished manuscript, available at Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley), 25. Also see Viktor Frankl “Synchronisation in Birkenwald,” Gesammelte Werke, vol. 2, eds. Alexander Batthyány, Karlheinz Biller and Eugenio Fizzotti (Vienna: Böhlau, 2006) 39-72.
27 Frankl, Was nicht in meinen Büchern steht, 81.
28 Frankl, Was nicht in meinen Büchern steht, 82. Also see Haddon Klingberg, When Life Calls Out to Us: The Love and Lifework of Viktor and Elly Frankl (New York: Double Day, 2001), 156.
29 Ibid., 80-81.
30 Ibid.
31 Alexander Batthyány, Mythos Frankl?: Geschichte der Logotherapie und Existenzanalyse 1925-1945; Entgegnung auf Timothy Pytell (Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2006), 10.
32 See Viktor Frankl, Logos und Existenz (Vienna: Amandus-Verlag, 1951), specifically, “Die Existenzanalyse und die Probleme der Zeit (1946),” 24-31.
33 Viktor Frankl, “There is no Collective Guilt,” Austrian Information 41, no. 6 (1988): 5.
34 See Peter Gay, Freud, Jews and Other Germans: Masters and Victims in Modernist Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), XI-XII.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 See Karl Jaspers, “The Question of German Guilt,” in Karl Jaspers: Basic Philosophical Writings trans. and eds. Edith Ehrlich, Leonard H. Ehrlich, and George B. Pepper (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1986), 396-408.
38 Frankl, “There is no Collective Guilt,” 5.
39 This claim for an unburdened past is similar to Hannah Arendt’s notion of “natality” where each generation has the opportunity to start anew. For an interesting insight into the psychology of guilt, Germans, and the Nazi past see Peter Sichrovsky, Born Guilty (New York: Basic Books, 1993).
40 Frankl, “In Memorium,” The Jewish Echo: Periodical of Jewish Intellectuals 5, no. 6 (1949): 1.
41 Ibid.
42 Jaspers, The Question of German Guilt, 400.
43 On the Schüssel Era see Günter Bischof, Fritz Plasser, eds., The Schüssel Era in Austria, Contemporary Austrian Studies vol. 18 (New Orleans: University of New Orleans Press, 2010), especially Günter Bischof and Michael S. Maier, “Reinventing Tradition and the Politics of History: Schüssel’s Restitution and Commemoration Policies,” 206-234.
44 The Neue Kronen Zeitung was the largest selling daily paper, and has a strong rightist orientation.
45 According to Klingberg the Frankl’s and Waldheim’s were “social acquaintances.” Klingberg, When Life Calls Out to Us, 301.
46 See Carl Hödl, Leben ist nicht Zufall: ein Kaleidoskop mit bunten und lebendigen Bildern aus dem Leben eines Linzer Kommunalpolitikers, der seine Meinung immer offen vertreten hat (Vienna: Trauner, 1990) 141-77.
47 On the WJC and Waldheim, see Mitten, The Politics of Antisemitic Prejudice, 119-37.
48 Fritz Wolfram, “Die Problematik einer weiteren Arbeitszeitverkürzung und Freizeitvermehrung,” freie argumente: Freiheitliche Zeitschrift für Politik, no. 2 (January 1981): 29.
49 Frankl made this last claim first in his 1963 edition of Man’s Search for Meaning, 136 (footnote), repeated it in Was nicht in meinen Büchern steht, 80, and once again on a nationally broadcast television interview in 1994, Wolf Interview, (FPÖ). Dr. Rüdiger Stix, FPÖ member and in the Defense Ministry claimed they nominated Frankl based on the 1993 interview. Significantly, in 1993 the more liberal “leftist” members of the FPÖ left the party to form the Liberal Forum. Frankl seemed to be useful in the attempt to legitimize and rehabilitate a rightist group.
50 The information on the politics behind Frankl’s nomination comes from my interview with Dr. Rüdiger Stix of the FPÖ in Vienna, 15 June 1996.
51 See Simon Wiesenthal Center News Release, 29 June 1995.
52 See “Viktor Frankl distanziert sich von F-Chef Haider,” Der Standard, 13 Jan. 1996, and “Frankl an Haider: Verärgerung über den ‘ Freund,’” News, 3 Mar. 1996.
53 Gabriella Vesely-Frankl, “Lasst Frankl aus dem Spiel!” profil, 22 Jan. 1996, 70-71.
54 See “Viktor Frankl für echten Dialog mit den Rechtsextremisten,” Politik, no. 6, 26 Jan. 1993.
55 Frankl’s world-wide renown was exemplified by the fact he gave the keynote address to the first World Congress of Psychotherapy held in Vienna July, 1996.
56 Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 803.
57 See Günter Bischof, “Victims? Perpetrators?,” 24.
58 Frankl, “There is No Collective Guilt,” 5.
59 Klingberg, When Life Calls Out to Us, 229.
60 Ibid., 230