Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the Committee for Jewish Claims Against Austria and chairman of the Jewish Agency executive, charged tonight that throughout the negotiations with the Austrian Government, which have dragged intermittently for over a year and a half, the Austrian Government “has approached the issues in the spirit of a business deal, has sought to yield the minimum, and has shown no real desire to do something substantial and effective.
“Our self-respect and dignity requires that we discontinue this bargaining and face the issue that the present leaders of Austria are not aware of their moral obligation and are not ready to offer substantial amends to the tens of thousands of Jewish victims of the Nazi regime in Austria.” Dr. Goldmann said. He spoke at a meeting called to protest the Austrian Government’s denial of compensation to thousands of surviving victims of the Nazi regime in Austria. The meeting was sponsored by the American Federation of Jews from Central Europe and the American Federation of Jews from Austria.
The Jewish leader made it clear that he did not hold the present Austrian Government responsible for the horrors committed by the Nazis. “But it is undeniable that a large part, if not a majority, of the Austrian people welcomed the Nazi regime enthusiastically; that Hitler himself and many of the most savage Nazi officials and sadistic gauleiters responsible for the extermination of hundreds of equal to those of other Jewish communities of the Nazi-dominated territories,” Dr. Goldman stated.
“It is also a fact that tens of thousands of former Austrian Jews are now living under the most difficult conditions,” Dr. Goldmann continued. “The Austrian Government should therefore deem it an elementary moral obligation to do something for these people by passing legislation to compensate individuals and by placing at the disposal of Jewish organizations a substantial amount in payment for heirless and unclaimed Jewish property which could be used for the benefit of the aged, sick and displaced former Austrian Jews.”
Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the American Jewish Congress, who was also one of the speakers at the meeting, said that “the Austrian Government, whose population participated in, and benefitted from, the Nazi persecutions, has repeatedly sought to compensate former Nazis while procrastinating and rejecting the minimal demands in behalf of the Jewish victims.”
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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.
