Austrian Parliament Votes $22,000,000 for Nazi Victims Abroad

The Austrian Parliament adopted today the measure formally establishing a fund of 550 million schillings (approx. $22,000,000) for the payment of restitution to Austrian victims of political persecution now residing abroad. The phrase “political persecutees” as used in the measure is the Austrian technical term covering persons who suffered persecution between 1933 and 1945 on racial or religious grounds or for holding anti-fascist political views.

The measure was supported by all parties in Parliament except the pro-Nazi League of Independents. Just before the voting, Hans Steuber, formerly of League of Independents and now organizer of a new Nazi-tinged party, the Free Democratic National Workers Party, created an uproar in Parliament by attacking the world Jewish organizations which had negotiated the fund and by asserting that Austria had already given the racial persecutees three times as much as they had been deprived of by the Nazi regime.

The fund, established as a result of negotiations between the Austrian Government and major world Jewish organizations organized in the Committee for Jewish Claims on Austria, together with the Association of Jewish Communities in Austria, envisions the payments to persecutees abroad stretching over a period of 11 years. The fund, to be established by grants from the Austrian Treaty, will be free of all fees and taxes. It has been estimated by Austrian Government circles that the 550 million schillings is about the same amount that the Nazi victims would have received if they were now living in Austria.

Victims of Nazi persecution eligible under the measure adopted today may not receive monies from the fund if they are already receiving monies under other Austrian legislation for the benefit of Nazi victims. The only exception to this provision is made for those who receive compensation for deprivation of liberty.