Austria starts holocaust payments process
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-16 10:03

Austria on Thursday began the process of compensating Holocaust victims robbed under the Nazis, mailing notifications to the first survivors eligible for payments.

The fund created by Austria in 2001 to compensate those stripped of businesses, property, bank accounts and insurance policies under the Third Reich mailed letters to 100 of the 19,300 survivors who have applied.

The letters say how much the victims will receive, along with a form they must sign and return promising not to sue Austria or Austrian companies that benefited from the taken property, said Hannah Lessing, general secretary of the General Settlement Fund.

"This is the first step in payment," Lessing told The Associated Press. "Now the first payments can be made in the next 10 days."

Andreas Kohl, Austria's parliament speaker and chairman of the fund's board, said he was determined to see the first payments go out before year's end, and he pledged to devote three hours on Monday to signing another 1,300 letters.

Earlier this year, the government and Austrian companies pledged to pay $210 million to endow the fund once all Holocaust litigation against Austria was resolved.

Vienna was home to a vibrant Jewish community of some 200,000 before World War II. Today, it numbers about 7,000.

A spokeswoman for the community, Erika Jakubovits, said the group was "very satisfied" that the first payments would soon be made.

Payments had been delayed because of pending legal action in the United States. That hurdle was cleared last month when a New York court threw out sections of a class-action lawsuit targeting Austria.