VIENNA, Austria -- A tiny typewritten line tucked away in an immense archive sheds further light on the Nazi past of Arnold Schwarzenegger's father.
A document at the Austrian State Archives shows that Gustav Schwarzenegger, the late father of the film star now running for governor of California, was a volunteer member of the Sturmabteilung, or SA -- the notorious Nazi storm troopers also known as brownshirts.
The father's Nazi Party membership and combat record in the German army are not new, and his son's dismay about them is well-known. But the revelations of SA membership that emerged a week ago add another strand to the murky story.
The listing shows the elder Schwarzenegger joined May 1, 1939, the year after Germany annexed Austria and six months after the brownshirts played a crucial role in the bloody Kristallnacht riots.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which in 1990 investigated Gustav Schwarzenegger's wartime past at his son's request, plans to conduct new research before the Oct. 7 California recall election to establish what the father's unit did, said Rabbi Marvin Hier.
Whatever it finds out, "We will give it to Arnold, then to the public," Hier said. "Whatever the record shows, so may it show. Should that record have any bearing on Arnold Schwarzenegger himself⢠In my opinion, absolutely not."
Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman Sean Walsh said Sunday he does not believe the actions of the actor's father will influence voters in the recall election.
"His record regarding stamping out intolerance is absolutely rock-solid and he will continue to work closely with the Simon Wiesenthal Center to ensure that the attitudes and actions that occurred in the Nazi era never happen again," Walsh said.
The Wiesenthal Center didn't find the storm trooper reference in its 1990 investigation because that record was sealed until last year, 30 years after Gustav Schwarzenegger's death.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has donated nearly $750,000 to the center, raised millions more, and helped the organization fight anti-Semitism. Born two years after World War II ended, he long ago distanced himself from his late father's views and in 1991 he received the Wiesenthal Center's National Leadership Award.
The storm troopers played a crucial role in expanding Adolf Hitler's power. They were part of the 1938 Kristallnacht rampage, during which more than 1,000 synagogues were destroyed.
Austrian State Archives don't have details about the elder Schwarzenegger's SA activities, and don't provide enough information to determine whether he was any worse than most Nazis, said Ursula Schwarz, a researcher at the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance.
There's no doubt that Schwarzenegger's father was a Nazi; Austrian records indicate he joined the party on March 1, 1938, two weeks before the country was annexed. The murkiness of the historical records is demonstrated by a separate record obtained by the Wiesenthal Center which indicates he sought membership before the annexation but was only accepted in 1941.
