Hitler keeps losing honorary citizen titles

Another town has stripped Adolf Hitler of his citizen of honour title, it emerged today (Tues).Wolfgang Mair, the People’s Party (ÖVP) mayor of Waidhofen an der Ybbs in Lower Austria, announced that the decision was made unanimously by all Town Hall delegates yesterday. Mair added that all of the town’s councillors wanted to disassociate themselves personally and politically from the far-right mindset and Nazi ideas. He explained that the Town Hall wrongly assumed that the honour became obsolete with the Third Reich dictator’s suicide in 1945.Only last week, delegates of Amstetten and Klagenfurt revoked the honorary citizenship title given to Hitler. The right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ) caused controversy once more as its Amstetten branch abstained from voting over the issue. Federal FPÖ General Secretary Herbert Kickl argued that the title loses its effect with the person’s death. Kickl added that there were more urgent issues Austria’s politicians should focus on.Hundreds of cities and towns all over the German Third Reich – which Austria belonged to from 1938 on – honoured Hitler in various ways during his reign to demonstrate their loyalty with the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) leader.