Forced Labor in Austria Late Recognition History Tragic Fates

Fund for Reconciliation, Peace and 19381945 Cooperation:Forced Labor in Austria Late Recognition History Tragic Fates Hubert Feichtlbauer Imprint Austrian Reconciliation Fund (Publisher) Hubert Feichtlbauer (Author) Scientific Advisor Univ. Doz. Florian Freund German Edition: ISBN: 3-901116-21-4 English Edition: ISBN: 3-901116-22-2 Published in German, English, Polish and Russian Printed by Rema Print, Neulerchenfelder Straße 35, A-1160 Vienna, on 100% chlorine-free bleached paper The book, the title, the cover design and all symbols and illustrations used are protected by copyright. All rights reserved, in particular with regard to the translation, reproduction, extraction of photomechanical or similar material and storage in data processing media either in full or in part. Despite careful research, no responsibility is accepted for the correctness of the information contained in this book. In order to ensure the readability of the texts and lists, gender-specific formulations were frequently dispensed with. Quotes from individuals and legal documents were translated solely for the purposes of this publication. No liability is accepted for translation, typesetting and printing errors. www.reconciliationfund.at © 2005 2 Schopenhauerstraße 36, A-1180 Vienna www.braintrust.at Contents 1. ›Preface‹ 5 Wolfgang Schüssel, Maria Schaumayer, Ludwig Steiner, Richard Wotava; About This Book 2. ›Guilt and Atonement‹ 17 3. ›Racism and Exploitation‹ 41 4. ›Every Case a Tragic Fate‹ 71 5. ›Why Such a Late Issue?‹ 127 6. ›The State and the Business Community Remember‹ 147 7. ›Tough Negotiations‹ 163 8. ›A Law as a Voluntary Gesture‹ 195 9. ›The Many Faces of Tragedy‹ 239 10. ›Outcome and Outlook‹ 285 Annex 309 Payments made as of July 12, 2005 310 Reconciliation Fund Law 312 Additional Literature 318 CHAPTER 1 ›Preface‹ Forewords: 6 Wolfgang Schüssel 8 Maria Schaumayer 10 Ludwig Steiner 12 Richard Wotava 15 About This Book A Gesture of Respect and Solidarity For fifty-five years, the fate of the former slave and forced laborers who suffered such grave injustice on the territory of the present-day Republic of Austria during the Third Reich was not regarded as Austria's problem. Today, there is a broad consensus that our country also has a moral responsibility to this group of victims, not least of all because of the complicity of large numbers of Austrians. In the first instance, this publication sets out to provide a detailed account of this gesture of respect and solidarity toward the former slave and forced laborers. However, this gesture also became a deeply humanitarian act, because until then, these victims of the Nazi regime had also been forgotten and sometimes even persecuted in their home countries. At the same time, this publication also renders account. The Austrian Rec- onciliation Fund was originally endowed with six billion schillings, partly financed by taxes and partly by financial contributions from the Austrian business community. This publication enables taxpayers and the Austrian companies who participated to inform themselves once again about how these funds were used. Only a few days after I took office as Austrian Chancellor in 2000, the former president of the Austrian National Bank, Dr. Maria Schaumayer, was appointed Special Government Representative for the Settlement of Slave and Forced Labor Related Issues. In less than five months, she suc- cessfully concluded the necessary international negotiations with a series of states, victims' associations and organizations, and drew up the draft for the so-called Reconciliation Fund Law. This was then unanimously passed by the two houses of the Austrian parliament, the Nationalrat and Bundesrat, in July 2000. The Austrian Reconciliation Fund was constituted on December 20, 2000, and on the same day, Ambassador Dr. Steiner was appointed Chairman of the Committee and Ambassador Dr. Wotava Secretary General. Immedi- ately afterward, the Fund commenced its work. 6 Preface This approach enabled the Fund to make the best possible use of the period before the guarantee of legal peace upon which payments had been made conditional was given. On July, 31 2001, only three hours after I confirmed to the Fund that legal peace had been attained, instructions were given to the relevant bank to transfer payments to more than 20,000 former slave and forced laborers. This sent a powerful message to the international public that Austria had only had to wait for the elimination of the final legal obstacles before it could start making symbolic payments to the former slave and forced laborers. Since then, such symbolic payments totaling more than 352 million euros have been made to over 130,000 former slave and forced laborers. As the Austrian Reconciliation Fund will still have money left over once it has completed its work, this will be used for other acts of redress in con- nection with the injustices perpetrated during Nazi rule on the territory of the present-day Republic of Austria. This includes a significant amount of money that has already been made available in the form of advance payments to the Fund's six partner organizations in Central and Eastern Europe for humanitarian, but in particular for medical projects benefiting former slave and forced laborers. The efficient but also humane manner in which the Reconciliation Fund Law was implemented by the Fund and its highly motivated staff have won Austria a great deal of goodwill. I would therefore like to express my warmest thanks to all those who have helped us fulfill this task, be it by providing financial resources or through their work at the Reconciliation Fund. Dr. Wolfgang Schüssel, Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria 7 We Did Not Want to Forget Anyone With the establishment of the Fund for Reconciliation, Peace and Co-operation that was unanimously agreed by all parliamentary parties in 2000, the Republic of Austria has critically confronted an unresolved chapter from the dark period of the Nazi regime. Victims' organizations and government bodies from those Central and Eastern European countries from which most of the slave and forced laborers came, as well as historians, contemporary witnesses and victims all played a constructive part in this process. When Chancellor Schüssel called me in early February 2000 to ask me to become the government special representative for voluntary payments to slave and forced laborers who had been coerced into work on the territory of the present-day Republic of Austria, he awakened childhood memories again. Suddenly, vivid memories came flooding back of people who had been forced to work under duress and under guard, whom we pitied but were unable to help. Naturally, I agreed to take up this position in a voluntary capacity. Of course, I knew that the people on whose behalf I wanted to work, with a rapidly formed but extremely ambitious taskforce, were elderly and we could not afford to lose any time. We also sensed that after the defeat of the Nazi regime, victims had only rarely been able to find a life of their own that would have allowed them to forget the difficult period they spent as slave and forced laborers. In our work for the Reconciliation Fund Law, we followed the mandate given to us by the Federal Government and the desire of victims' organizations to include as many victims as possible and to provide justice in a worthy form that took account of the different kinds of suffering. This awareness and our efforts led to differences between the Austrian and the German solutions, which proved advantageous to the victims. I am grate- ful to Chancellor Schüssel for accepting my suggestion to take a different approach than the Federal Republic of Germany and conduct separate— 8 Preface albeit linked—negotiations with regard to human fates and unresolved restitution issues. This approach enabled us, in cooperation with Stuart Eizenstat, the US special representative for slave and forced-labor related issues, to quickly achieve legal peace in the USA. The Austrian Reconcili- ation Fund constituted in December 2000 under the chairmanship of the chancellor was thus able to start with the full and controlled payment of compensation to the elderly former slave and forced laborers in mid 2001, following the dismissal of the last class-action suit. I am proud that with the help of the Austrian Reconciliation Fund, Austria identified and included one group of victims who had not been covered by previous arrangements, namely those Hungarian Jews who had in the last months of the war been deported under indescribable conditions to the area around Vienna, to Strasshof and Laxenburg, to build the South Eastern Defensive Wall. Austria has faced up to its moral obligations that arose from the tragic events of the Nazi period. The compensation payments made by the Rec- onciliation Fund should show the victims of Nazi slave and forced labor that Austria has understood their suffering, that it has compassion, and will continue efforts to achieve permanent reconciliation. May this moral and humanitarian gesture bring peace and liberation to both sides. Dr. Maria Schaumayer, Special Government Representative for Forced Labor Related Issues 9 Responsibility Cannot Be Shared The law concerning the foundation of the Fund for Reconciliation, Peace and Co-operation was passed by all the members of the Nationalrat. This unanimity clearly shows the importance that the legislator, and thus the representatives of the Austrian voters, attrib- uted to this gesture from the Republic towards former slave laborers and forced laborers. This fact, and like- wise the naming of the Fund, placed high demands on the sense of responsibility, the empathy, expert knowledge and productive capacity of our employees from the very outset. The name of our Fund begins with the word "Reconciliation." It was clear to all of us that we cannot demand reconciliation from those men and women whose sad lot it was to suffer forced labor.

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