2001: The Washington Agreement
The “Agreement Between the Austrian Federal Government and the Government of the United States of America on the Settlement of Questions Concerning Compensation and Restitution for Victims of National Socialism” can be seen as a late follow-up to the incomplete measures taken in 1945 to restore property and assets to those persecuted under National Socialism.
The overturning of the “victim thesis” in the early 1990s resulted in a new wave of compensation settlements and projects that dealt critically with the past, such as the establishment of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for the Victims of National Socialism (1995) and the Historical Commission (1998). After an agreement was signed in October 2000 to establish a reconciliation fund to compensate those forced to work as slave labourers under the Nazis, a few months later an agreement under international law was reached between Austria and the USA on compensation payments for property expropriated by the Nazis.
The content of the “Washington Agreement” is based on the “Joint Statement on the Settlement of Open Questions Concerning Compensation and Restitution”, which was signed on 17 January 2001 by representatives of the governments of Austria and the USA and the victims of National Socialism. The agreement forms the basis for the establishment of the “General Settlement Fund” to resolve open cases of compensation as well as additional social benefits and claims under the Victims Welfare Act. The “Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution” was set up to deal with the return of real estate seized during the Nazi era and not returned after 1945, which was in public ownership on 17 January 2001. In addition, Austria committed to providing a piece of land in exchange for the leased grounds seized from the Jewish sports club Hakoah in 1938 and funds for the restoration and upkeep of Jewish cemeteries in Austria.
Today, the agreed measures have largely been implemented. However, in a recent report the Fund notes that the challenge of engaging critically with the Nazi past must continue into the future.
Read the original wording of the document here:
Washington Agreement: BGBl. III Nr. 121/2001
Compensation Fund Act: BGBl. I Nr. 12/2001 idgF
Cemetery Fund Act (German only): BGBl. I Nr. 99/2010
Homepage of the General Settlement Fund:
https://www.entschaedigungsfonds.org/home
https://www.entschaedigungsfonds.org/in-rem-restitution
Academic article on the topic available online:
Günter Bischof, Michael S. Maier: Reinventing Tradition and the Politics of History: Schüssel’s Restitution and Commemoration Policies, in: Günter Bischof, Fritz Plasser (ed.): The Schüssel Era in Austria, New Orleans 2010, 206–234, online here.
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