The Austrian Parliament approved today–16 years after the end of World War II–legislation to provide compensation to victims of nazism.
Two laws were passed. One concerns the founding of a $6,000,000 fund providing payments to political and racial persecutees who were deprived during the Nazi era in Austria of bank accounts, securities, cash and mortgages. An eight-man board to be nominated by Catholic, Protestant and Jewish religious bodies will handle distribution of the funds. Payments will be to individuals and not to organizations.
The other action was acceptance of the twelfth amendment to the Nazi Victims Law which provides double payments for each month of incarceration of victims of nazism. Payments also will be made to each Jew forced to wear the Star of David for at least six months, persons whose earning capacity was reduced 50 percent for a period of three and a half years, and to persons who could not complete their education because of persecution of their parents or themselves.
Victims of nazism who earned more than 72,000 schillings (about $2,880) annually from 1955 to 1960 were excluded from benefits. Parliament members also voted to exclude themselves as well.
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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.
