A delegation representing the Committee for Jewish Claims on Austria, conferred here this morning, with the new Austrian Foreign Minister, Dr. Bruno Kreisky. The Jewish leaders urged that the Austrian Government expand existing indemnification legislation, through comprehensive amendments, so as to provide compensation for Nazi victims who have heretofore been excluded from benefits and for economic losses suffered by all persecutees as a result of Nazi action
The delegation stressed, in the course of today’s conference, that “existing legislation is grossly inadequate to secure a minimum of compensation for losses and injuries suffered by victims of Nazi persecution in Austria. More than 20 years have elapsed, and many of the victims, among them aged and needy, are still awaiting satisfaction of their claims. “
The Jewish leaders also called for indemnification to the Jewish communities of Austria for synagogues and related communal institutions destroyed during the Nazi era, and for aid to those communities along the same lines as the government pursued with other religious bodies.
The members of the delegation were Mr. Jacob Blaustein. honorary president of the American Jewish Committee; Dr. Israel Goldstein, honorary president of the American Jewish Congress; Mr. Adolph Held, president of the Jewish Labor Committee; Dr. Gustav Jellinek. president of the American Federation of Jews from Austria; Saul Kagan, secretary of the Committee for Jewish Claims on Austria; and Dr. Nehemiah Robinson, director of the Institute of Jewish Affairs, World Jewish Congress.
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