Agreement was reported to have been reached last night between West German and Austrian negotiators on a West German contribution of 321,000,000 deutschemarks ($80,000,000) to an Austrian fund for the payment of compensation to victims of the Nazi era in Austria.
Negotiations were handled by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries, Heinrich von Brentano of West Germany and Bruno Kreisky of Austria. The conference was held at Bad Kreuzbach.
A treaty covering the contribution agreement is expected to be signed in Vienna later this summer. The West German contribution will include a share for indemnification of Austria’s postwar refugees and a contribution of about 70,000,000 deutschemarks (about $17,500,000) to compensate Austria for the confiscation by Nazi Germany of Austrian social insurance funds in 1938.
Austrian parties agreed last March, 15 years after Austria received its independence, on terms of a bill to provide some compensation to the surviving victims of nazism. The measure was made contingent on a West German contribution to the proposed fund for such payments.
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