West Germany and Austria today exchanged ratification signatures of the agreement entered by the two governments last year under which the Bonn Government will contribute 321,000,000 Deutschmarks (over $80,000,000) toward Austria’s general program of compensation to victims of Nazism and to other Austrian nationals who suffered losses in this country during the Nazi regime.
Foreign Minister Bruno Kreisky signed the document for Austria, while Dr. Friedrich Janz, Bonn’s Ambassador to Vienna, represented his Government at the ceremonies. The pact will go into effect October 11, culminating many years of negotiations and debate of the issue by the Austrian Parliament.
Out of the total to be contributed by Germany, 95,000,000 Deutschmarks (about $24,000,000) has been earmarked for aid to Austrian victims of Nazism, a category that includes Jews, and 6,000,000 marks (about $1,250,000) as compensation for unclaimed, heirless property. In these areas, Austria will contribute similar amounts. The total number of Jews to benefit from the various phases of the overall program has not as yet been made public by the German authorities. The bulk of beneficiaries are expected to be non-Jews.
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