Stalin Orders Probe of Transfer of Jewish Property in Vienna; Acts on J.t.a. Query

An inquiry called by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to Marshal Joseph Stalin with regard to Jewish property in Vienna reported to have been presented by Russian military authorities to a non-Jew, resulted in an investigation and a reply from the political representative of the USSR in Austria that the property in question was returned to the former Jewish owner after the Soviet military “temporarily settled in the house an Austrian woman whose husband had perished in a concentration camp during the German occupation.”

The reply, transmitted to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency through the Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob M.Lomakin, emphasizes that the district where the property is located is now in the British zone and the Soviet authorities have had nothing to do with it since Sept. 1945.

The cable addressed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to Marshal Stalin, on May 18, 1946, was based on a report which appeared at that time in the New York Times. It read:

“It is reported by the New York Times that Red Army authorities in Vienna have presented as a gift to a non-Jew a house at Schweitzertalstrasse 17, owned by Anna Robinson, a Jewish victim of Nazi persecution whose entire family was exterminated by the Nazis and who returned to Vienna after harrowing experience of seven years of Nazi concentration camps to find herself deprived of her own home.

“You can imagine her feelings seeing herself deprived of her home which was presented by the Red Army military command in Vienna to another person under “a certificate of gift.”

“Your Excellency has repeatedly expressed powerful sentiments in favor of victims of Nazi persecution, assuring them that they will receive justice. The New York Times states that this is only one of several similar cases in Vienna. Jewish public opinion in the United States is deeply perturbed by this development.

“We cannot believe that this represents a considered policy, and would greatly appreciate a statement from you for distribution by our agency which serves the Jewish press throughout the world.”

TEXT OF THE SOVIET REPLY; SAYS FAMILY LIVED IN USSR DURING THE WAR

Declaring that Mrs. Robinson and the members of her family found refuge in the Soviet Union in 1939, after fleeing from the Nazis, and returned to Vienna in Dec. 1945, the Soviet reply said:

“In reply to your cable of May 18, 1946, addressed to Generalissimo Stalin the political representative of the USSR in Austria communicates as follows:

“Mrs. Anna Robinson is at present residing in her own home at 17 Schweizertalstrasse, District 13, Vienna (British occupation zone.) From 1939 until December, 1945, Mrs. Robinson lived in the Soviet Union together with her daughter, son-in-law and two grand-children. In December, 1945, with the assistance of the Soviet authorities she, together with the whole family, returned safely to Vienna, which she had left in 1938 fleeing from the fascists.

In 1939 her house in Vienna was confiscated by the German fascists. The fascist who has taken over the house fled Vienna at the advance of the Red Army in April, 1945. After the liberation of Vienna by the troops of the Red Army in April 1945, the Soviet Kommendatura temporarily settled in the house an Austrian woman whose husband had perished in a concentration camp during the German occupation. Upon her return to Vienna in December 1945, Mrs. Robinson, with her family, resettled in her house, having received from the Vienna Magistrate new documents giving her full rights of possession of her house and property. She has never since made any complaints to the Soviet military authorities in Vienna.

“It is necessary to add for your information that since September 1945, the district where Mrs. Robinson’s house is located has belonged to the British zone of occupation and since then the Soviet military authorities have had nothing to do with it whatsoever.”