Austria to begin Nazi victim payments

President George W. Bush (R) meets with Austria's Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel in the Oval Office. Picture / Reuters

VIENNA - Austria will start paying roughly US$210 million ($303.11 million) in compensation to victims of the Nazi regime next week after the last US lawsuit claiming damages from Austria was dropped.

Austria, which was incorporated into Adolf Hitler's Third Reich in 1938, set up a fund to compensate victims of Nazism for such losses as the confiscation of property and being denied education, but said payments would only begin when lawsuits in the United States over those losses were abandoned.

"I have the great pleasure to be able to say today that we have reached legal closure through the dismissal of the last lawsuit in the American courts," Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel told reporters in German after meeting US President George W. Bush in Washington.

His comments were broadcast on Austrian state television.

"The first payment can begin next week after a corresponding decision by the Austrian government," he said.

Some of the lawsuits claiming compensation for losses caused by the Nazis in what is now Austria were brought against the Austrian state, while others demanded damages from Austrian companies.

Roughly 19,000 applications for compensation from the US$210 million fund have been filed but only part of those have been processed so far.

The head of Austria's Jewish community, Ariel Muzicant, told Austrian news agency APA he was "more than happy" with the result.

"We are jubilant," he was quoted as saying.

- REUTERS