December, 2005


The year 2005 was a year of remembrance. We commemorated the end of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps sixty years ago; Austria’s independence and its membership in the United Nations fifty years ago; and ten years of Austria’s European Union membership.

This year would be incomplete, however, without the symbolic compensation which Austria’s General Settlement Fund is now starting to pay out to the victims of the NS Regime and their heirs. You will find some articles on this topic in the current issue, including personal stories and interviews with people who were involved in one way or another, such as Ludwig Steiner, Richard Wotava, and others.

The death of Simon Wiesenthal in September has been widely covered by the Austrian media. His relentless efforts and life-long contributions to bringing Nazi perpetrators to justice have been honored by numerous dignitaries. His work will be continued by the head of the Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, Ephraim Zuroff. He said: We will remain true to his spiritual testament and continue the fight with the same decisiveness.

You will also find an interesting article on a lecture given by French Cardinal Lustiger at a conference organized by the Coordinating Committee for Christian-Jewish Cooperation. The conference was prompted by the 40th anniversary of the "Nostra Aetate" of the 2nd Vatican Council which in 1965 had brought a new comprehensive reappraisal of Judaism by the Roman Catholic Church.

Happy Hannukah,

 

Christoph Meran
Director
Austrian Press and Information Service
www.austria.org

Austrian Press Agency (APA) (12/02/05)


Vienna - With the conclusion of the Commemorative Year 2005, the first payments will be made from the General Settlement Fund, the core of the restitution agreement reached between the governments of Austria and the United States, and the representatives of victims’ organizations. The first one hundred letters to victims will be sent out today, Thursday. Until the end of the year this number will rise to 921. Since 2001 a total of 19,300 applications have been filed, two thirds of which are from survivors. Restitution will be made for seven categories of losses and damages during the NS regime within the borders of current-day Austria.

Out of the 19,300 applications, 3,500 were declared as officially definitive this week. Preference is given to the oldest applicants. Payments cannot be made yet to about half of the 3,500 cases, mostly due to missing documents such as inheritance paperwork in the cases of deceased applicants. Some 1,700 cases can be regarded as completed; of those, 200 were denied, 600 are below the minimum threshold of USD 500, leaving 900 which can expect payments before the end of the year. The quotas for prepayments will be announced this afternoon by the Board.

Prepayments of 10% are planned for categories including businesses and business assets, real estate (if no natural restitution has been granted), bank accounts, stocks, mortgages, movable assets, and other losses and damages. Prepayments of 15% will be made for insurance policies, as well as education and career-related losses that can be traced back to the NS Regime in Austria. The final quota for payments can be determined after all 19,300 applications have been determined. But prepayments are expected to cover most of the total amounts awarded. Awards under USD 500 will not be paid, as the maximum threshold is set at USD 2 million.

Originally, all payments were to begin after all cases had been determined. Due to the length of the suit, however, which has been going on for years, and the advanced age of many applicants, the possibility of prepayments became an option. The deadline for applications was May 2003. Start of payments was also dependent on legal peace between Austria and the United States which means that there are no pending lawsuits against Austria in the U.S. The money for the Fund, which totals USD 210 million, is coming from the Austrian Federal Government (USD 60 million), the City of Vienna (35 million), banks (45 million), insurance companies (25 million), industry (10 million), the Chamber of Commerce (15 million), and the ÖIAG (32 million).

The General Settlement Fund, which is managed by the National Fund, is not the only means by which victims have been or will be indemnified. Most measures have been negotiated in January 2001 between the governments of Austria and the United States, with the inclusion of victims’ representatives. A separate restitution fund has been established for former slave laborers during the NS Regime. The Versöhnungsfonds (Reconciliation Fund) made payments totaling 352 Million Euros to 131, 578 individuals and will stop its activities at the end of the year.

Furthermore, there are plans to return real estate, which was confiscated during the NS regime and now is owned by public entities (Restitution in rem). The application deadline for this type of restitution has been extended until the end of 2006. A social welfare package for Holocaust survivors has also been negotiated. And, finally, the government pledged to rebuild the Jewish sports club Hakoah, to restore and maintain Jewish cemeteries in Austria, and to continue art restitution.

Austrian Press Agency (APA) (11/02/05)

Indignation over Ahmadinejad’s statements on Israel
Israelite Religious Community addresses letter of protest to Teheran’s Ambassador

Vienna The Israelite Religious Community protested against the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In a patent letter, the official representatives of the Vienna Jewish Community expressed their indignation of Ahmadinejad’s statement, to wipe Israel off the map. Today a protest before the Iranian Embassy in Vienna 1030, Jauresgasse/Reisnerstraße is planned to take place at 6 p.m.

While Arabic and Muslim countries worldwide are giving way to fundamentally re-evaluating their relationship with Israel, while Israelis and Palestinians are finally entering a promising dialogue, the irresponsible call for obliterating Israel deliberately breaches the UN Charta and ostracizes a country belonging to the family of nations in this world, states the letter of protest directed to the Iranian ambassador. The letter was signed by President of the Israelite Religious Community (IKG) Ariel Muzicant, Vice Presidents Renate Erbst and Esther Fritsch as well as Secretary General Avshalom Hodik.

The representatives demanded that Ahmadinejad officially revoke his declaration, to cease the support of global terror and stop the secret program of developing nuclear weapons.

At the protest in front of the Iranian Embassy, Rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg, IKG President Muzicant and the delegate to the Green Party in the National Council of the Austrian Parliament, Terezija Stoisits, announced that they will give speeches during the rally.

Austrian Press Agency (APA) (11/03/05)

Education as the prerequisite for the Holocaust never happening again

Vienna Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik welcomes the declaration by the United Nation’s (UN) General Assembly of January 27 as an international day in commemoration of the Holocaust victims. With this resolution, the international community has given an important signal for the future. Commemoration of the Holocaust and the education of our young generation are the prerequisites that the atrocities of the Holocaust are never repeated.

Knowledge and awareness of crimes of the past together with teaching tolerance are the prerequisites for assuring that every individual can live in freedom and security. In this respect, Austria remains an active member of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, said Plassnik. Governments and organizations have committed themselves to implementing national programs of support for education and research in the area of the Holocaust and its commemoration.

Plassnik recalled the words spoken by Simon Wiesenthal before the UN General Assembly on the occasion of the Year of Tolerance in 1995: Hatred is the evil alternative to tolerance – it leads to radical words which are then followed by radical actions. It was Wiesenthal who emphasized the importance of educating our youth.

With the unanimous acceptance of the resolution, the UN General Assembly designated the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp on January 27 as the day of commemoration. Austria was among those countries that supports the resolution initiated by Israel asking for the creation of educational programs and condemns the denial of the Holocaust as well as all forms of religious and ethnic intolerance. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was requested to take all measures possible to mobilize civil society on topics regarding the Holocaust.

OTS (06/09/05)

On June 9, 2005, Federal President Dr. Heinz Fischer awarded Simon Wiesenthal the Grand Order of Merit in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria. One of the reasons stated for granting him the award was that Wiesenthal had made a major contribution by tracking down some of the most notorious Nazi criminals from their post-war hiding places and by bringing them to justice.

According to a press release by the Federal President’s presiding office, Holocaust survivor Wiesenthal, who became known as a Nazi hunter after the end of WW II, had done a great service in denouncing the most severe crimes at a time when his work in Austria was not always made easy. Under the motto, justice not vengeance, Wiesenthal had demonstrated trust in a democratic post-war Austria, a country governed by the rule of law. He had contributed to Austria’s confrontation with its NS past and reconciliation between Jews and non-Jews. The award was presented by Dr. Heinz Fischer during a ceremony at the private apartment of the ninety-six year-old Wiesenthal in Vienna.

Simon Wiesenthal was born in Buczacz in Galicia (now Ukraine) on December 31, 1908. He attended school and studied architecture in Lvov, Vienna and Prague. In 1941, he was arrested by the Germans. Surviving a total of twelve concentration camps, he was liberated from Mauthausen in 1945 by U.S. troops.