Prior to his leaving for the United States, Chancellor Dr. Leopold Figl received a delegation of the Vienna Jewish Community which submitted a memorandum to him reviewing the situation of the Jews in Austria and requesting a loan of 15,000,000 shillings from the Austrian Government as an advance payment against restitution for Jewish property.
The memorandum stated that 58,500 Vienna Jews perished in Nazi camps. It emphasized that because of the great need in social aid among the surviving Jews in Vienna, the Jewish Community budget for 1952 will face a deficit of more than 3,000,000 shillings. It also reported that because of a shortage in funds, the Jewish Hospital here may be closed by September, unless the loan requested by the Jewish Community is granted by the government.
The memorandum stressed the fact that the Jewish Community is very much concerned over reports that the Third Restitution Law may be amended. It also pointed out that no restitution fund as yet had been established in Austria out of heirless Jewish property.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.