Among many Austrians, there remains a widespread sentiment that their country was Adolf Hitler’s “first victim,” annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938—whereas in fact Austria was joined with, not conquered by, the Third Reich, and its Gentile citizens were treated as the equals of Germans. In the past two decades, attitudes have begun to change, and Austria has taken some steps toward confronting its past, including the role of countless Austrians in carrying out the Final Solution. Hans Hochstöger has made a contribution to this effort with his film Endphase, which was recently screened in the UK for the first time. Rich Tenorio writes:

Hans Hochstöger remembers the Austrian village of Hofamt Priel as an idyllic place. He grew up in this bucolic setting an hour away from Vienna, with farmhouses that are in calm contrast to the Austrian capital. From his teenage years onward, however, Hochstöger’s perception of his hometown was shattered when he learned about its World War II history. In May 1945, during the closing days of the war in Europe, over 200 Jews were murdered in Hofamt Priel.

The dark story is part of the narrative of Hungarian Jews in the Holocaust. As the film explains, over 400,000 Hungarian Jews were deported from their homeland in 1944, with 80 percent of them, roughly 320,000, perishing soon after their arrival at Auschwitz. In Austria, there were 15,000 [of these Jewish] deportees doing forced labor, including repairing roofs in Vienna after Allied air raids. The German position became untenable with the approach of the Red Army.

At the end of April 1945, [a group of these] Jews were temporarily housed in neighboring Persenbeug at a barracks for workers at a power plant on the Danube River. Hochstöger states that an SS unit came to the barracks on the evening of May 2, 1945, brought most of the Jews to Hofamt Priel and gunned them down there, with help from several local Austrians.

Even if the agreement with Hamas to secure the release of some, and possibly all, of the remaining hostages—and the bodies of those no longer alive—is a prudent decision for Israel, it comes at a very high price: potentially leaving Hamas in control of Gaza and the release of vast numbers of Palestinian prisoners, many with blood on their hands. Nadav Shragai reminds us of the history of such agreements:

We cannot forget that the terrorists released in the Jibril deal during the summer of 1985 became the backbone of the first intifada, resulting in the murder of 165 Israelis. Approximately half of the terrorists released following the Oslo Accords joined Palestinian terror groups, with many participating in the second intifada that claimed 1,178 Israeli lives. Those freed in [exchange for Gilad Shalit in 2011] constructed Gaza, the world’s largest terror city, and brought about the October 7 massacre. We must ask ourselves: where will those released in the 2025 hostage deal lead us?

Taking these painful concessions into account Michael Oren argues that they might nonetheless be necessary:

From day one—October 7, 2023—Israel’s twin goals in Gaza were fundamentally irreconcilable. Israel could not, as its leaders pledged, simultaneously destroy Hamas and secure all of the hostages’ release. The terrorists who regarded the hostages as the key to their survival would hardly give them up for less than an Israeli commitment to end—and therefore lose—the war. Israelis, for their part, were torn between those who felt that they could not send their children to the army so long as hostages remained in captivity and those who held that, if Hamas wins, Israel will not have an army at all.

While 33 hostages will be released in the first stage, dozens—alive and dead—will remain in Gaza, prolonging their families’ suffering. The relatives of those killed by the Palestinian terrorists now going free will also be shattered. So, too, will the Israelis who still see soldiers dying in Gaza almost daily while Hamas rocket fire continues. What were all of Israel’s sacrifices for, they will ask. . . .

Perhaps this outcome was unavoidable from the beginning. Perhaps the deal is the only way of reconciling Israel’s mutually exclusive goals of annihilating Hamas and repatriating the hostages. Perhaps, despite Israel’s subsequent military triumph, this is the price for the failures of October 7.