The Association of Austrian Jews in Israel has renewed its demands for reparations from Austria along the lines of those received by German Jews for their material losses under the Nazis, The Association accused Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, of neglecting Austrian-Jewish claims. Dr. Goldmann, in the early 1950s, was instrumental in initiating the negotiations with the government of the late Chancellor Konrad Adenauer that led to the Bonn-Israel reparations agreement of 1952.
J. Sheinbaum, representing the Austrian Jews in Israel, proposed a three-party meeting between the Austrian and West German governments and representative Jewish bodies of Austria to discuss the problem and find a remedy to a situation “that causes ill feelings and is unjust.”
He said that Austria was part and parcel of the Third Reich and as such was equally obligated to compensate Jews who were the victims of persecution. He said most Austrian Jews claiming compensation were over 60 and in poor health. But Austrian Jews got but a negligible fraction of what German Jews got and less even than what Czech Jews got in the way of reparations, he said.
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