Hitler no longer Amstetten citizen of honour
A town in Lower Austria has stripped Adolf Hitler of his honorary citizenship 66 years after the Third Reich leaders death.Hitler who was born in Braunau, Upper Austria committed suicide when the World War Two (WWII) defeat of Germany became imminent in April 1945. Now Amstetten Town Hall delegates dispossessed Hitler of the citizen of honour title.Social Democratic (SPÖ) Mayor Herbert Katzengruber said today (Weds) yesterdays Town Hall debate was “very emotional.” He added that the decision to deprive the dictator of the honorary title found a “vast majority.”The right-wing Freedom Partys (FPÖ) faction controversially abstained from voting, arguing that citizen of honour titles become obsolete when a person passes away.The town in Lower Austria was engulfed in an intense discussion over the topic after a Green Party Town Hall representative revealed that nothing had been done about Hitlers honorary citizenship. Several other towns and cities in Germany and Austria stripped the late National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) leader of similar titles after officials apparently failed to realise he was still honoured that way.Amstetten has been in the news in mostly negative context in the past years as it was the hometown of dungeon dad Josef Fritzl. The 75-year-old kept his own daughter as a personal sex slave in a self-built basement chamber for more than 24 years before his crimes were exposed in April 2008.Fritzl who is accused of raping the woman more than 3,000 times was found guilty of rape, incest, sequestration, grievous assault, enslavement and “murder by neglect” for letting a newborn die in a trial in St. Pölten in March 2009. He is serving a lifetime sentence in a prison in Krems, Lower Austria.