Many riders initially assumed that someone was playing a prank or that a train employee had accidentally left the intercom on while watching a movie, according to Schlomo Hofmeister, the community rabbi of Vienna, who was on board on Sunday.
“Something didn’t add up. And eventually the announcements became more and more absurd,” Hofmeister said in an interview Tuesday. “When the Hitler speech came, then it was clear to everyone that this is not an accident, but this is on purpose.”
Hours after the incident, the rabbi tweeted that he found it “above all disturbing, when some passengers began to laugh” as Hilter’s voice and Nazi slogans sounded from the loudspeakers. He expressed frustration Tuesday that train personnel didn’t immediately walk through the cars and tell passengers not to worry.
“Some people were shocked, some were panicked, some were upset,” he recounted. “Yet others just started to laugh out of awkwardness, I suppose.”
Green Party lawmaker David Stögmüller, who tweeted a video showing one of the moments when the Nazi salute call “Sieg Heil” was broadcast, described the sabotage as “pretty disturbing” and said a member of staff appeared “completely helpless.”
Austria’s national railway operator, ÖBB, said via email Tuesday that it had reported the incident to police after identifying the individuals allegedly involved. The “two unauthorized persons” — neither of whom were members of its staff — gained access to the intercom system and played “music and National Socialist texts,” the statement said.
“We apologize to the passengers for the unpleasant situation, and we clearly distance ourselves from the content,” the statement said.
An ÖBB spokesman told Austrian newspaper Der Standard that the perpetrators appeared to have used a key that rail employees have to access the intercom and played the recordings from a cellphone. In two similar incidents over the past week, children’s songs were played over a train intercom, according to the newspaper.
“The investigators were already able to determine the identity of the two accused in Vienna and will bring them in for questioning as soon as possible,” the regional police said in an emailed statement Tuesday.
Police have not publicly discussed the motive behind the incident but confirmed that the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism of the State Police Directorate of Lower Austria had taken over the case.
Hitler, who was born in Austria, annexed the country in 1938 while leader of Nazi Germany. Last year, the country announced plans to strengthen its already strict laws banning the use of Nazi symbols, according to Reuters news agency.
On Monday, the antisemitism Reporting Office of the Jewish Community of Vienna said in an annual report that it had received 719 reports of “clearly antisemitic” incidents in 2022 — the second-highest tally since the group began its tracking.
