Hostage-taking in Marchegg

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The hostage-taking in Marchegg took place on September 28, 1973 by Palestinians who described themselves as the eagles of the Palestinian revolution . This was probably a command of the Palestinian group As-Sa'iqa under the leadership of Zuhair Muhsin .

background

Soviet Jews who were allowed to emigrate to Israel were brought in groups by train to Austria during these years , where there had been a transit camp for them in Schönau Castle in Lower Austria since 1965 . Here they were received by representatives of Israel, looked after and subsequently - if their immigration wish actually existed - transported by flight from Vienna Airport to Israel. Occasionally, Soviet emigrants in Schönau decided not to immigrate to Israel, but to stay in Europe. The Palestinians were reluctant to immigrate to Israel because they believed that the Jewish element in the region would be strengthened at the expense of the Palestinians.

timeline

On September 28, 1973, the Jewish New Year celebrations of that year, two Palestinian hostage-takers brought three Jewish emigrants and the Austrian customs guard Franz Bobits into their power at the Marchegg border station by taking them from a train arriving from the Soviet Union under threat of armed violence. The hostage-takers then drove with the hostages in a VW transporter towards Vienna Airport . They demanded the closure of the transit camp in Schönau an der Triesting and their free travel to the Middle East.

The Kreisky government responded to these demands on the same day. The government broadcasting statement read:

“In an extraordinary Council of Ministers held on September 28, 1973, the Federal Government decided, in view of the fact that the security of the Soviet citizens who emigrated in groups to Israel from the Soviet Union is endangered when they pass through Austria, from now on and in the future previously granted reliefs, such as accommodation in the Schönau camp, to be discontinued. "

The hostages were then released on September 29th after hours of negotiations. The then security director Oswald Peterlunger (as a representative of the Interior Ministry) and the psychiatrist Willibald Sluga were involved in the negotiations .

The two terrorists, who identified themselves as members of the " as-Sa'iqa ", were flown to Tripoli in Libya by two pilots who had volunteered to do so in a Cessna 414 after several stopovers and further negotiations .

consequences

Although the hostage-taking itself was bloodless, the government, especially Bruno Kreisky , was exposed to strong criticism because the Chancellor had given in to the terrorists. The Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir traveled to Vienna only three days later and, during her visit on October 2, 1973, asked Kreisky to lift the lock on Schönau. This was rejected by Kreisky, however, arguing that there had been threats against Schönau beforehand. The political relationship between Meir and Kreisky remained tense. After her conversation with Kreisky, Meir claimed that the Federal Chancellery had not even offered her a glass of water, which Ari Rath refuted (in the Ö1 interview with Renata Schmidtkunz , April 9, 2015).

The Bad Schönau transit camp was closed on December 12, 1973. As a replacement in the Babenberger barracks in Wöllersdorf, the “Wöllersdorf assistance center of the Lower Austrian Red Cross regional association for refugees and other travelers” was set up. De facto, there was no deterioration in their care in Austria for those who emigrated from the Soviet Union.

The attack led to the expansion of the executive in Lower Austria. The Bad Vöslau gendarmerie post moved to Schönau Castle, which was subsequently converted into the “Vienna Gendarmerie Escort Command” based in the Burstyn barracks in Zwölfaxing . As a result of further terrorist events in Europe, from January 1, 1978, the " Gendarmerie Einsatzkommando ", later called Cobra , which in turn moved into Schönau Castle on February 14, 1978.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the special unit 1973-1978 , accessed on January 16, 2010.