Austrian Jewish leaders were sharply critical today of the fact that not a single Austrian Government representative attended the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the Nazi burnings of the synagogues.
The mass meeting was held Monday to mark the day when the Nazis began major anti-Semitic persecutions in Austria with the burning of 58 Austrian synagogues, including 17 in Vienna and the deportation of some 10,000 Jews to concentration camps.
Jewish leaders contrasted the complete absence of official Austrian Government representation with the action of West German President Theodor Heuss and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in sending special messages to West German Jewry on the commemoration.
Emil Maurer, president of the Austrian Jewish community, and Ernst Feldsberg, the vice-president, appealed to the Austrian Government to finish “true restitution” for Austrian survivors of the Nazi terror, who in the past 13 years had “benefited from general social security programs” but still had failed to receive real compensation for their sufferings.
A resolution, sponsored by the Board of Austrian Jewish communities, was approved at the memorial meeting, charging that the Government of Austria lacked a positive attitude toward true restitution. The resolution asserted that to date, the persecutors had been favored over the persecutees in Government compensation and demanded that the Government fulfill its state treaty obligations.
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