[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello Melvin,

Mr. Ad van Lingen, then member of the Dutch Study Group Airwar 1939-1945, has once made a hilarious presentation how he tried to make enquieries about Unger in Austria. I can remember his presentation quite vividly but will restrict myself to the essential and most humourous part:

During his research, Van Lingen wrote to the Major of Vienna (where Unger's family lived originally) whether there were still relatives of this Austrian Luftwaffe pilot alive who could be contacted and which should be informed because their missing family member had been found.

He got a blunt reply that Unger could not possibly an Austrian Luftwaffe pilot, because "Austria was not involved in WW-2" or a similar phrase. Van Lingen replied to him (with a copy to Kurt Waldheim, then the Austrian president) that:
- the highest Nazi who ruled the occupied Netherlands was Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the former Austrian Nazi-leader and adherer of Adolf Hitler
- most of Seyss-Inquarts high ranked staff members ruling the occupied Netherlands - like Wimmer - were Austrians
- the supreme Nazi police commander in the Netherlands, terrorizing the population, was Hanns Albin Rauter, an Austrian
- one of the Gruppenkommandeure of the III./NJG 1 in Twente/Holland was the Austrian Egmont Prince zur Lippe-Weissenfeld etc. etc.

Apparantly Waldheim smelled a terrible row if the lack of cooperation (and even worse: the lack of any historical knowledge) of Vienna's town major became public. Whether by Waldheims intervention or not, soon Van Lingen was informed that Ungers sister was very pleased to hear about the fate of her brother of which she always was kept in the dark.

All the best, Marcel / Venlo