Passengers on an express train to Vienna on Sunday night were shocked and outraged when a scratchy recording of Adolf Hitler and Nazi refrains of “Heil Hitler” and “Sieg Heil” played over the train’s public address system for about 20 minutes. With the help of a specialized key, a passenger had accessed the system and held a phone playing the recording up to the microphone. National rail investigators used video feeds to identify two men they believe are responsible. The police planned to interview the suspects “as fast as possible”.
The strange episode has led to embarrassment and head-scratching in Austria, where Hitler was born. The men thought to be responsible had performed a less sinister version of the takeover on two other trains last week, playing children songs and an audio blooper reel of Chris Lohner, who has been the official voice of Austrian train announcements for decades.
Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister, Vienna’s community rabbi, who happened to be on the train when the recording blasted from the speaker, called it “disturbing”. Colette Schmidt, a journalist with the broadsheet Der Standard, asked on Twitter: “What does a guest from abroad think when Hitler speeches are played over loudspeakers in our trains?”
The episode has raised questions about the security of the national rail service’s P.A. system and the need to ensure that such an incident never happens again.