Victims of persecution during the Nazi regime in Austria will receive compensation under an agreement negotiated between the Government of Austria and the United States, Britain and France, Chancellor Julius Raab declared today. The agreement commits Austria to set up a fund of $6,000,000 to meet such claims.
The figure was a compromise between demands of Jewish world organizations, which had asked $7,000,000, and the Austrian offer of $5,000,000. Mr. Raab told the Cabinet Ministers that Austria would also provide the administrative costs for this program, which was negotiated under the state treaty, between this country and the former occupying powers.
The funds, which will be paid out between July 1959, and December 1961, will benefit victims of religious, racial and political persecution. Compensation will be paid for confiscated bank accounts, securities, cash and mortgages as well as for Nazi-imposed taxes on emigrants and Jewish property taxes.
Observers here pointed out that the settlement announced by Chancellor Raab does not cover in any way the demands for amendment of internal indemnification legislation, or for proper compensation to the Jewish communities of Austria, made by the Committee for Jewish Claims on Austria in a conference in New York today with Vice-Chancellor Bruno Pitterman.
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