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VIENNA – A major Austrian newspaper has apologized for printing a death notice that carried the Nazi storm troop rank of the deceased.
The announcement of the death of Lois Plock in the Kleine Zeitung noted that he was an “Untersturmfuehrer” — a paramilitary rank of Hitler’s special SS forces. SS members served as Hitler’s bodyguard and formed elite police and military units that carried out many of the era’s Holocaust atrocities.
The announcement also listed a Nazi-era decoration of the deceased and carried a verse associated with the oath of loyalty sworn by Nazi troops to the German dictator.
The daily’s chief editor, Hubert Patterer, apologized for printing the notice on Sunday, one day after it appeared. He called it a “horrible mistake.”