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He added that he was "concerned that we recognize also that racism, xenophobia and threats to human rights are not confined to Austria."

Churches had a "powerful ecumenical role to play," Dr Clements said, in dealing with such issues.

"Churches, because they believe in truth and reconciliation, and because they know the liberating power of confession and repentance, should be able to help societies come to terms with the guilt of the past."Austria, he said, was not the only country where the past had to be accounted for."In Northern Ireland, for example, churches have been able to play a role where responsible church leaders have called on their respective communities to re-examine their own histories."Copyright © 2000 Ecumenical News International. Used with permission.

The cover story of the March/April 1997 issue of Books & Culture [print only] (a Christianity Today sister publication) asked "How German Was the Holocaust?" The article, by Jean Bethke Elshtain, looked at three books, one of them a controversial bestseller, that seek to explain how and why thousands of ordinary Germans participated in the systematic murder of Europe's Jews.

For more coverage of the controversy over the new Austrian government, see Yahoo!'s full coverage area and the BBC's site on the topic.

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February (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44