Jewish Leaders Meet with Austrian Chancellor Tomorrow on Claims

Leaders of American, British and French Jewish organizations who are to negotiate with the Austrian Government for the payment of reparations to Jews who suffered damages under the Nazi regime in Austria, met here today and appointed a special delegation to conferred in Vienna Tuesday with Austrian Chancellor Julius Raab and on Wednesday with Austrian President Theodure Koerner. These talks will be held prior to the launching of formal reparations negotiations which are to start about a week later.

The delegation will be composed of Dr. Nahum Goldmann, who was elected chairman of the executive board for Jewish claims against Austria at today’s meeting; Jacob Blaustein, president of the American Jewish Committee; Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the American Jewish Congress; Adolph Held, chairman of the Jewish Labor Committee; Moses Beckelman, European director of the Joint Distribution Committee; Barnett Janner, representing British Jewry, Eugene Weill of the Alliance Israelite, representing French Jewry; and Emil Maurer, president of the Vienna Jewish Community, representing Austrian Jewry.

It was learned today that in addition to demanding compensation for Jewish individuals for the damages they suffered under the Nazi in Austria, the Jewish leaders will also demand that the assets of Austrian Jewish victims who died heirless should be made available for relief and rehabilitation of Jewish survivors.

(The prediction that the Jews will claim 2,000,000,000 schillings ($77,000,000) from the Austrian Government when the reparations negotiations begin, was made today in Vienna by the pro-Nazi newspaper Der Alpenruf, which is on a campaign to undermine the negotiations. The newspaper predicted that when Jewish leaders confer with Chancellor Raab on Tuesday, they will be told that Austria refuses to recognize the right to restitution of Jewish victims of Nazism now living abroad.)