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.

While the current Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has never been friendly to Hamas, his government has objected strenuously to the Israeli campaign in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip. Haisam Hassanein explains why:

Cairo has long been playing a double game, holding Hamas terrorists near while simultaneously trying to appear helpful to the United States and Israel. Israel taking control of Rafah threatens Egypt’s ability to exploit the chaos in Gaza, both to generate profits for regime insiders and so Cairo can pose as an indispensable mediator and preserve access to U.S. money and arms.

Egyptian security officials have looked the other way while Hamas and other Palestinian militants dug tunnels on the Egyptian-Gaza border. That gave Cairo the ability to use the situation in Gaza as a tool for regional influence and to ensure Egypt’s role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would not be eclipsed by regional competitors such as Qatar and Turkey.

Some elements close to the Sisi regime have benefited from Hamas control over Gaza and the Rafah crossing. Media reports indicate an Egyptian company run by one of Sisi’s close allies is making hundreds of millions of dollars by taxing Gazans fleeing the current conflict.

Moreover, writes Judith Miller, the Gaza war has been a godsend to the entire Egyptian economy, which was in dire straits last fall. Since October 7, the International Monetary Fund has given the country a much-needed injection of cash, since the U.S. and other Western countries believe it is a necessary intermediary and stabilizing force. Cairo therefore sees the continuation of the war, rather than an Israeli victory, as most desirable. Hassanein concludes:

Adding to its financial incentive, the Sisi regime views the Rafah crossing as a crucial card in preserving Cairo’s regional standing. Holding it increases Egypt’s relevance to countries that want to send aid to the Palestinians and ensures Washington stays quiet about Egypt’s gross human-rights violations so it can maintain a stable flow of U.S. assistance and weaponry. . . . No serious effort to turn the page on Hamas will yield the desired results without cutting this umbilical cord between the Sisi regime and Hamas.