Austrians hold candlelight vigil on Nazi anniversary

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrians lit 80,000 candles in a somber tribute to victims of Nazism on Wednesday held in a Vienna square where their forefathers celebrated Hitler's takeover of the country 70 years ago.

The silent vigil in the huge, neo-classical Heldenplatz (Heroes' Square), climaxed a week of commemorations of the "Anschluss", or annexation, of Austria by Nazi Germany -- an early step towards World War Two and the Holocaust.

"I think people here didn't want to passively let this anniversary go by, but rather send a signal countering the Nazi frenzy of 70 years ago in this very place," said Inge Langer, a middle-aged woman who came with her children.

The Anschluss anniversary revived debate about the extent to which Austrians were victims of Nazism or willing accomplices. Most Austrians now agree they were also deeply complicit in the Nazi machinery of war and genocide after decades of denial.

Each candle symbolized one of the estimated 80,000 Austrians, including 65,000 Jews, killed by Nazis. Organisers planned to display the name of every known victim on a screen in the square that flanks the old Hofburg imperial palace.

Austrian Nazis grabbed power on March 12, 1938 as German columns began to cross the border and immediately began purging political foes and persecuting a long vibrant Jewish community.

The Nazi dictator appeared on a Hofburg balcony three days later to formally proclaim the absorption of his homeland in his "Third Reich" before a rapturous crowd of hundreds of thousands.

Wednesday's vigil, which was to continue until dawn on Thursday, was much smaller in size. But participants said their purpose -- to honor the fallen of the past and democratic ethos of the present -- was much greater in spirit.