June 14



AUSTRIA:

Austria slowly awakes to its Holocaust complicity and responsibilities


When Michael Siw's parents returned to war-battered Vienna in 1948, they
were relieved to see their home had survived the city's heavy bombing by
the Allies.

But after a bruising and failed three-year court battle to recover their
apartment and a family inheritance, including a factory, they went
back to Israel. Depressed and disgusted by anti-Semitism and humiliated by
officials and neighbors alike, they never returned.

''They tried to get their property back,'' but found it occupied by
new tenants, Siw said. ''When they saw my parents, one of the occupants
yelled: 'Jesus Christ! You haven't been gassed?'''

Thousands of other Holocaust survivors met with similar resistance in
futile attempts to reclaim ownership of property plundered during World
War II. More than a half century later, critics say, Austria still has a
long way to go in making restitution and coming to grips with its Nazi
past.

A new report by 160 historians and researchers criticizes the Alpine
country's postwar governments for their unwillingness to indemnify
Holocaust victims, saying Austria acted ''often halfheartedly.''

Serious restitution efforts were initiated only in the mid-1980s.
Earlier attempts, hampered by a series of often ambiguous laws, ''were all
too often made on the basis of outside pressure, especially from the
Western allies,'' according to the 14,000-page government-commissioned
report.

Anti-Semitism appears to be abating, with opinion polls saying such
sentiments have dropped by half since 1991, when a quarter of survey
participants expressed anti-Jewish feelings. Not even the far-right
Freedom Party or its divisive former leader, Joerg Haider, have publicly
challenged the restitution efforts.

Haider's anti-foreigner stance and praise of some of Adolf Hitler's
policies led the European Union to temporarily impose sanctions on Austria
after the Freedom Party joined the government in 2000. Israel withdrew its
ambassador in protest and has yet to fill the post, even though Haider no
longer leads the party and its influence has dwindled.

Looting of Jewish property started immediately after German troops
entered Austria in March 1938, often to a warm welcome from Austrians. The
Nazi catchword was ''Arisierung'' the ''Aryanization'' of Jewish houses,
apartments, land and artworks.

Some 65,000 Austrian Jews died in Nazi concentration camps, while 150,000
more fled the country or were deported after being forced to pay a
''flight tax.''

Only relatively recently have Austrians begun to publicly acknowledge
their country's complicity.

The official pretext for authorities' shunning of responsibility was the
Moscow Declaration of 1943, in which the Allies declared the country of
Hitler's birth as the first victim of the Nazi dictatorship. In fact, a
disproportionately large number of Austrians had been directly involved
in the Nazi death machinery.

It wasn't until 1991 that Franz Vranitzky became the first Austrian
chancellor to declare in parliament that Austrians were not only victims
but also perpetrators of the Holocaust.

Jewish survivors returning to Austria in the immediate postwar years
found their houses and apartments occupied, their bank accounts depleted
and their commercial holdings in other people's hands. Few managed to
recover their property.

Siw's family fled the Nazis in the 1930s for British-ruled Palestine,
later to become Israel. He is now 60, a retired airline executive living
in Tel Aviv.

Sitting in a Viennese coffeehouse, he described how his parents came back
to their old apartment to be told by the people squatting there that they
had nowhere else to go and wouldn't leave without a court order.

''They urged my parents to come again next day or later to pick up the
furniture,'' Siw said. ''When the family returned the same afternoon, the
apartment was empty except for a chandelier which couldn't be removed.''

After battling in court for three years, the family was told that
enhancements made to the property after they left far exceeded its
original value and that they ''should be happy for not being charged the
difference,'' Siw said.

''That was when they packed up and left,'' he said.

Others fared little better.

Ruth Freyer, a 56-year-old Vienna resident, said her grandfather, who had
been quite wealthy, managed to get his house back after waiting out the
war in Israel. ''But all his other property the valuables, chandeliers,
silverware and paintings were all gone.''

The thefts were an added insult. Before the Nazis let him leave Austria
in 1939, she said, ''Grandfather was forced to pay 28,000 reichsmarks''
-- roughly $126,000 in today's terms.

Systematic restitution efforts didn't begin until 1985, when parliament
approved a law obliging the state to auction off paintings, artworks and
other unclaimed valuables. That auction wasn't held until 1996, when the
sale of 8,000 items generated more than $14.5 million.

Nearly 90 percent of the proceeds went to Jewish victims of the
Holocaust.

A year earlier, the government started the Fund for Victims of National
Socialism and began paying $6,000 to each of 33,000 Jewish survivors.
Officials conceded the effort was mostly symbolic.

In January 2001, parliament adopted a $500 million package that included
money for those payments plus two other restitution funds.

A $150 million fund was set up to pay Jewish survivors $7,000 each for
lost tenancy rights, household goods and personal belongings. A $210
million fund compensates both survivors and their heirs for lost insurance
policies, bank deposits, real estate, licenses and other rights.

Progress is also being made albeit slowly in confronting the broader
issue of Austria's wartime past with books and exhibits paying tribute to
Jewish and other victims of the Nazis.

In a 2001 poll, 61 percent of 1,010 youths said they thought it was
''very important'' to teach students about what happened in Austria under
the Third Reich and 29 percent said it was ''important.'' The survey had
an error margin of three percentage points.

President Thomas Klestil, meeting recently with 80 former Austrian Jews
in Vienna at the invitation of the Jewish Welcome Service, stressed such
efforts.

He pointed to the 2001 inauguration of a memorial honoring victims of
the Holocaust, the dedication of a new synagogue and a major education
project in which students are reconstructing the biographies of all
Austrian victims.

''The overwhelming majority of Austrians have the good will to draw the
appropriate conclusions from the past,'' Klestil assured the visitors.
''Our country will not shun confrontation with the past.''

Siw said he is bitter over what happened to his family, yet he keeps
returning to Vienna.

''One always tries to find one's childhood,'' he said.

''The city, its life and culture that's something that always pulls me
back. Twice or three times a year I come to 'fill up' on culture.''


On the Net:
Vienna's Jewish community: http://www.ikg-wien.at
Holocaust victims' fund: http://www.nationalfonds.org
Austrian historians' commission: http://www.historikerkommission.gv.at

(source: Associated Press)