Last update - 00:00 15/10/2006
WJC calls for Austrian restitution agreement to be reopened
By Amiram Barkat
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) has called on the Austrian government to reopen the restitution agreement for Jewish property confiscated during the Holocaust. WJC leaders argue that the agreement is unjust because it gives only symbolic compensation - at the most 13 percent of the property's real value.
The call, supported by the organization of Austrian Jews in Israel, is likely to encounter more than a little opposition. Stuart Eisenstat, under-secretary of the treasury under former U.S. president Bill Clinton and a key figure in hammering out the original agreement, told Haaretz yesterday that although the compensation was "inadequate," the agreement is the best that could be have been reached. He called the demand to open it up "inappropriate and in bad faith."
The director of the WJC's Israel office, Bobby Brown, said that a number of claimants had said the amount was a mockery. He added that Austria had the means to do more than any other country, including Germany, considering its economic ability and documentation of confiscated Jewish property.
Among those demanding the agreement be revisited is the Shomroni family from Israel and the United States. The family's grandfather, Richard Schwartz, was an owner of an Innsbruck department store that was considered among the biggest in the Tyrol region. A few days after Kristallnacht, he was arrested and beaten, and subsequently fled to England, leaving his business and a villa behind. Two years ago, his grandchildren filed a claim with the Austrian General Settlement Fund and National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism. The claim was turned down, citing the fact that the Schwartz had received compensation in 1959. "the sum he received was 1.4 million shillings, which is about $50,000," his grandson, Ilan Shomroni, said. "We know the store was sold a few years ago for 30 million euro."
The most problematic clause in the restitution agreement sets the total amount of compensation for real estate, financial assets and businesses at an amount not to exceed $210 million. The amount for property was limited to $2 million. Therefore, each claimant can receive an amount that is relative to that of other claimants. This limitation is not in force in Germany; the German government thus far has paid out more than $1.5 billion in compensation.
Until the May 2003 deadline set by the Austrian government, 19,000 claims had been filed, including 2,600 in Israel and 6,000 in the United States. Investigation of these claims is likely to end in 2008.
The fund's director, Hannah Lessing, decided to pay out an advance in December 2005. However, a sampling by Lessing showed that the relative amount each claimant would receive would not be more than 13 percent of the value of the claim.
Eisenstat said the Austrians had restored government assets and works of art, pledged to support the Jewish community, and paid millions of dollars in compensation to Holocaust victims. He said that if new demands were made now, no one will want to sign future agreements.
But Brown rejected Eisenstat's arguement. "Germany signed agreements in the 1950s, and negotiations have been continuous to suit changing circumstances and needs."
The restitution agreement with Austria was considered one of the Clinton administration's achievements. For many years, the country refused to take responsibility for the oppression of its Jewish community, arguing that it was the primary victim of Nazi aggression. However, following increasing public pressure, Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky announced that the country would take partial responsibility for Nazi atrocities.
The agreement was one of three signed in Washington by the Austrian and U.S. governments along with representatives of Jewish organizations at the end of Clinton's second term.
In a second agreement, Austria allocated $150 million for $8,000 in personal compensation to each of 27,000 Austrian victims of the Nazis worldwide. A third agreement allocated Austrian government pensions and social benefits of about $110 million to the victims.