A committee of the coalition parties in the Austrian Government has reached an agreement on restitution for racial and political persecution during the Nazi regime, an authoritative Government source told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today.
Under the agreement, the Government will make available within three years 600, -000, 000 schillings (about $150, 000, 000) for such claims. This will include 150, 000, 000 schillings (about $40, 000, 000) on which agreement was reached last spring. The money will be used for partial restitution of confiscated bank accounts, jewels and the like.
The spokesman said that West Germany would contribute to the restitution fund, adding that the West German contribution had been agreed on in principle but that no agreement had yet been reached on the West German share.
The spokesman also said that since Austrian-West German negotiations on the amount cannot be concluded before November, the Austrian Parliament will not act on passage of the necessary restitution legislation before December or January.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
