'Was Very Very Scary': Austrian Train Plays Hitler's Speech, Nazi Slogans Over Loudspeakers

Passengers on an Austrian train running from Bregenz to Vienna were shocked when they heard a recording of an Adolf Hitler speech play over the train¡¯s loudspeaker system on Sunday. Nazi slogans such as ¡°Heil Hitler¡± and ¡°Sieg heil¡± were also heard via the train¡¯s intercom, according to several passengers on the train.

The operator said there had been several such incidents in recent days. One passenger on the train told the BBC that everyone on the train was "completely shocked".

AFP

Passengers recall horror

David Stoegmueller, a Green Party MP, said the speech by the Nazi German leader was played over the intercom shortly before the train, an ?BB Railjet 661, arrived in Vienna. "We heard two episodes," he said. "First there was 30 seconds of a Hitler speech, and then I heard 'Sieg Heil'."

Journalist Colette Schmidt, who was also on the train, asked for an explanation in a tweet on Sunday. ¡°Could you please enlighten us as to why an entire train¡± heard Hitler¡¯s speech, she asked. ¡°Including fervent Sieg Heil shouts? Have they been hacked? What¡¯s going on?,¡± she wrote.

¡°Quite apart from the fact that I and other Austrians were completely shocked: what does a guest from abroad think when Hitler speeches are played over loudspeakers in our trains? Supposedly it came from ¡°the technology¡±. What?!,¡± Schmidt said in the tweet.

The journalist said she was ¡°frightened¡± after hearing Hitler¡¯s speech on the train. ¡°No conductor, no one came, there was no one to see. We were alone with this madness. ¡°Who is driving this train now?¡± I asked myself,¡± Schmidt said. ¡°It was very very scary,¡± she added.

Ganz angesehen davon, dass ich und andere ?sterreicher:innen komplett schockiert waren: was denkt sich ein Gast aus dem Ausland, wenn in unseren Z¨¹gen Hitlerreden ¨¹ber Lautsprecher laufen? Angeblich kam es aus ?der Technik¡°. What?! @unsereOEBB

¡ª Colette Schmidt @ColetteMSchmidt@chaos.social (@ColetteMSchmidt) May 14, 2023

Train staff were 'helpless', couldn't stop it

Stoegmueller said the train staff were unable to stop the recording and were unable to make their own announcements. "One crew member was really upset," he added.

¡°Someone has illegally opened the intercom with a duplicate key and played a Hitler speech over a loudspeaker,¡± a spokesperson for the rail operator ?BB told CNN on Monday. The spokesperson said the incident has been reported to the Austrian police, and they are investigating.

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Two people charged

Two people allegedly involved in carrying it out were identified from the train¡¯s video surveillance. The duo has now been charged. ¡°It is absolutely clear that any abuse should be punished, especially the illegal use of Nazi symbols is absolutely unacceptable,¡± the spokesperson added.

The two are also suspected of responsibility for two other incidents last week on trains running from St. Poelten to Vienna, in which recordings were played over the train intercom. It was not clear if those recordings also had a Nazi connotation.

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