The president of the World Jewish Congress asked the government of Luxembourg Monday to withhold approval of the Austrian application for membership in the European Community until Austria accepts its responsibility to pay reparations to Holocaust survivors.
Edgar Bronfman told Prime Minister Jacques Santer, Grand Duke Jean and the entire assembled government body that Austria’s admission to the community should be dependent on its willingness to comply with Holocaust survivors’ claims against Austria, which he said the Austrian government has failed to honor for 40 years.
Bronfman, accompanied on his two-day visit by WJC Secretary-General Israel Singer and Executive Director Elan Steinberg, is the guest of the country’s 1,200-member Jewish community. The Consistoire Israelite de Luxembourg is the national affiliate of the WJC.
The WJC delegation arrived Sunday in Luxembourg, one of the 12 member nations of the European Community.
Steinberg, in a telephone interview from Luxembourg on Monday, said, “The Austrian desire to enter the E.C. is based on their desire for financial benefit, and we argue that they should not receive such benefits until they fulfill their financial obligations with respect to their participation in the persecution of the Jews during World War II.”
He emphasized that Bronfman’s request was the same as that recently put forth by European Jewish leaders, including Dr. Lionel Kopelowitz, president of the British Jewish community and chairman of the European Jewish Congress.
Kopelowitz wrote to Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky on Nov. 17, decrying the “vain efforts” directed at the Austrian government to win adequate compensation for its Jewish victims.
Steinberg said the Conference on Material Claims Against Austria — an entity separate from the Conference on Material Claims Against Germany — “has for two years had an outstanding letter to Vranitzky, asking for the chance to discuss such claims. They have failed to answer the letter. As of today, no such meeting has been set up.”
The meeting in Luxembourg has tremendous historical import. It was in Luxembourg City Hall, on Sept. 10, 1952, that representatives of West Germany, Israel and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany signed the agreement that Germany would pay reparations to Holocaust survivors.
The WJC delegation intends to pursue its campaign with all 12 E.C. member states.
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