Canadian Jews Say Austria Aids Ex-nazis While Neglecting Victims

The Canadian Jewish Congress protested today to the Austrian ambassador to Canada against bills now before the Austrian Parliament to provide pensions and indemnification to former Austrian civil servants who were barred from office after the end of World War II because of suspicion of being involved in Nazi war crimes.

In a letter to Ambassador Franz H. Leitner, the Congress said that “the generosity which is being offered to those so directly involved in the heinous Nazi crimes is in striking contrast to the consistently inadequate consideration of victims of Nazi persecution.”

The Jewish organization urged the Austrian Government to consider “general improvement of Austrian compensation laws, recognition of Austrian victims of Nazi persecution as expellees, reopening of negotiations with the Federal Republic of Germany to establish a hardship fund, which would meet the most urgent needs of the averaged and indigent Austrian victims, and integration of all Austrian victims of Nazi persecution into the federal indemnification legislation.”

The complaint also said that the “comparatively small benefits” given Austrian victims of Nazism” by amendment of Austrian welfare law “have been again and again delayed allegedly because of the high cost involved in this program.”

The Congress said it was hard to understand that the Austrian officials “should have no inhibitions” about spending substantial sums for those who “do not deserve them” and that the “few instances” of former Austrian civil servants who were disqualified for payments without active association with the Austrian Nazi regime could “certainly be handled on an individual basis without benefitting the entire group of former Nazis.”