PRESS RELEASE
jointly distributed with the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW), Mon, 13 Jul 1998

No Penalty for the Dissemination of the Ritual Murder Legend:
Suit Against Prantner Rejected

Vienna (July 13, 1998). On July 7, 1998, the District Attorney's office of Vienna informed the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW) that they have "reviewed the complaint against Robert Prantner being suspected of a hate crime (§ 283)] and ruled there was not enough evidence to file a criminal lawsuit."

Robert Prantner, a professor emeritus of theology at the Catholic College of Heiligenkreuz, published an article in the Austrian right-wing journal Zur Zeit (December 1997), reviving the ritual murder accusation against the Jews from the Middle Ages.

"It would be a falsification of history," wrote Prantner, "to attribute concrete ritual murders in the Middle Ages to the fantasy-ridden hate during National Socialism. Crimes by Jewish people against Christians are also deplorable stories, including those committed against children - such as the holy martyred child Anderl von Rinn - or against adults, as common in the period prior to Easter."

Prantner continued: "The blood of murdered Christians by Jewish hands also cries to Heaven! Therefore one expects a conference of world Jewry, based on religious grounds, where they plead for forgiveness for killing the 'new people of God,' the people of the 'New Testament,' born out of Jesus' blood, who died on the cross, convicted by the high order of Jewry 2000 years ago."

Since the Middle Ages, the legend of the ritual murder has been a central component in anti-Semitic propaganda, and it serves to instigate the Catholic people to act violently against the Jews. The former Bishop of Innsbruck, Reinhold Stecher, outlawed the Anderl von Rinn cult in 1994 and elaborated in a decree of the Innsbruck diocese, that "there had never been a ritual murder martyrdom." He also stated that legends of ritual murder have "caused innumerable Jews to lose their homes, possessions, freedom, health and life."

Stecher's successor, Dr. Alois Kothgasser, lauded repeatedly the measures taken by Stecher, as his historic merit, especially in view of the latest Anderl von Rinn celebration in Rinn (Tyrol) on Sunday, July 12, 1998. He reinforced the repeated prohibition of the Anderl von Rinn cult.

In addition, Dr. Kothgasser stressed that it was most important to him to point out that "the Catholic church repudiates every form of denunciation, allegation, and insinuation against the Jewish people, as demonstrated in the case of the Anderl von Rinn cult."

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and DÖW are deeply concerned over the rejection of the suit: This ruling deprives anyone of taking legal steps against the dissemination of the ritual murder legend and thus allows for anti-Semitic propaganda.

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