In 2001, the Claims Conference achieved a landmark agreement with Austria’s government and the business community that partially compensates Holocaust survivors for property and assets that were stolen and “Aryanized” during World War II, and addresses deficiencies in social welfare benefits, namely payments withheld from former Austrian Jews living abroad.
The agreement, signed in Washington, D.C. by the U.S. and Austrian governments, the Claims Conference, representatives of Austrian Jewish survivors, and class action lawyers, capped an intensive drive by the Claims Conference to compel Austria to confront its wartime role in the persecution of its former Jewish community. It comprised three parts:
