Kurt Waldheim, a former United Nations secretary-general and Austrian president who became tainted by revelations that he hid his past in Nazi Germany’s officer corps, died on Thursday aged 88. The domestic APA news agency said he had died of heart failure, quoting Waldheim’s son-in-law.

Waldheim admitted concealing his service with Hitler’s Wehrmacht but always denied knowing of Nazi war crimes committed there at the time, including deportations of thousands of Greek Jews.

Most Austrians did not believe Waldheim was linked to Nazi atrocities. In fact, the accusations boosted his poll ratings as president.

But the US added Waldheim’s name to its immigration “watch list” because of past associations with Hitler’s regime. He was unwelcome in many countries and undertook virtually no state visits, except the Vatican and Arab countries.

Till 1986, Waldheim was seen as a somewhat bland statesman without skeletons in his closet, a man who had served a decade as UN secretary-general after a career in Austria’s diplomatic service from 1945. During Austria’s 1986 presidential election, newsmagazine Profil published his old military registration card with stamps suggesting he had belonged to the Nazi Brownshirts, Hitler’s paramilitary street force,

before World War II. Profil also said it had found evidence Waldheim had served in

the Balkans in 1942-45, under General Alexander Lohr,

who was executed for war crimes in 1947.

Waldheim said he had been unfit to serve on the front and served as a junior staff officer or liaison officer with responsibility for compiling reports on enemy forces.

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