The American Jewish Congress today charged that the Austrian Government’s “deliberately dilatory tactics” in setting the claims of Jewish victims of Nazism and its “insultingly casual treatment” of these claims were the result of secret clauses in an agreement between Chancellor Julius Raab’s People’s Party and the neo-Nazi League of Independents.
The existence of this agreement, negotiated during the Austrian elections in 1953, was confirmed at the time by the People’s Party press, although the contents and details have never been published. The American Jewish Congress today disclosed the texts of the secret clauses on which it based its charges.
These clauses, the congress said, set forth an extensive program of benefits to former Nazis and explains why the Austrian Government has persistently sought to enact legislation benefiting former Nazis at the expense of their victims.
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