Decision no. WA10/2010

On 8 September 2008, in decision no. 481/2008, the Arbitration Panel rejected the application for in rem restitution of a property in Vienna, Donaufeld, which had been owned by the City of Vienna on the cut off day 17 January 2001, as the Arbitration Panel had determined that the applicant was not entitled to the inheritance. The application of a second applicant, whose right to the inheritance was recognized by the Arbitration Panel, was granted and the restitution of the property recommended.

After the Anschluss, the former owner Mina K. was considered Jewish pursuant to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 fled persecution to Yugoslavia in 1941. Her son Erich K. testified before a court after 1945 that she had been living in a Croatian village at the time of the German Armed Forces’ invasion of Yugoslavia. She did not survive the Holocaust, however, her exact date of death could not be established. In addition to Erich K., she had another son, Walter K., who was murdered in Auschwitz on 25 August 1942. After the war, both Mina K. and Walter K. were declared dead by the Provincial Court for Civil Matters Vienna. It was declared that they had not survived the 8 May 1945. The estate of Mina K. was devolved to her surviving son Erich K. Erich K. died in 1996, having bequeathed his entire assets to his partner, the second applicant in the initial proceedings.

In his application for reopening, the applicant, a nephew of Mina K.’s daughter-in-law, put forward his opinion that the generally known historical events indicated that Mina K. had died before her son Walter K. In turn, he had died before his wife Cäcilie K, the wife of the applicant. The applicant therefore asserted his right to the inheritance of Mina K. as a nephew of Cäcilie K.

The applicant submitted no evidence that Walter K. had died after his mother Mina K. The Arbitration Panel was also unable to determine anything regarding the date of death of Mina K. during the course of its research into her fate. after her flight from Vienna. Contrary to the opinion of the applicant, there is no compelling evidence to be gathered from literature on the persecution of Croatia’s Jewish population that would indicate that Mina K. had died before 25 August 1942. As the applicant is consequently not a legal heir, the application was to be rejected.