Austria
Your report on March 24 (Part I) that “Austria, for the first time, agreed to pay reparations to victims of the Nazis,” does not correspond to the facts. Actually, Austria has provided for restitution and financial compensation in favor of surviving Austrian victims of Nazi persecution by a whole series of legislative acts dating back to 1946.
The main method of such compensation has been the granting of pensions to those victims, most of them Jews. In today’s value, the total paid out to them over the years amounts to approximately 48 billion Schilling ($4 billion US-dollars). Today there are still 20,800 recipients of such pensions (1,652 billion Schilling/year), of whom 8,800 live in the United States and 2,450 in Israel.
The newly passed Austrian law does not concern reparations but a token ( Ehrengabe ) for the victims of Nazi persecution in commemoration of the fateful events 50 years ago. The amounts proposed are admittedly puny if compared to the loss of lives and property and to the anguish suffered by the prospective recipients. However, they are not meant to constitute a compensation, but only a gesture of solidarity.
NIKOLAUS SCHERK
Austrian Consul General
Los Angeles
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