Decision no. WA14/2016

Application

 

Applicant, Status

Damon B., Recommendation
Jonathan B., Recommendation
Olga Maria B., Recommendation
Sabrina B., Recommendation
Gerhard Franz H., Recommendation
Ariel M., Recommendation
Larissa P., Recommendation
Miguel Carlos R., Recommendation
Roberto Enrique R., Recommendation
Elfriede T., Recommendation

Public owner

Republik Österreich
Stadt Wien

Type of property

immovable

Real estate in

KG Hietzing (01205), Wien, Wien | show on map

Decision

 

Number

WA14/2016

Date

14 Jan 2016

Reason

No prior measure pursuant to the GSF Law

Type

substantive

Decision in anonymous form

Related decisions

Press release

Press Release Decision No. WA 14/2016

Vienna, Hietzing

On 14 January 2016, the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution supplemented and partially amended its decisions no. 1121/2015 and 1121a/2015 of 24 March and 29 September 2015. In these decisions the Arbitration Panel had already recommended the restitution of a 3,620 m² area of allotment gardens owned by the Republic of Austria and the award of a comparable asset of 130,500 euros for a 174 m² area of public road owned by the City of Vienna. After the applicants’ representative had submitted new evidence regarding the legal succession to the original owner, the proceedings had to be reopened and the scope of the applications extended.

In 1938, Nelly Ne., who was considered Jewish in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, owned an agricultural property on Vienna’s Küniglberg with an area of approx. 3,620 m², which she was forced to sell to the Reich Treasury (Aviation) in autumn 1938. Nelly Me. was deported to the extermination camp Maly Trostinec near Minsk in May 1942 where she was murdered.

After the war no claim was filed for restitution of the property. Once the ownership of the requested property had passed into the hands of the Republic of Austria upon enactment of the State Treaty of Vienna the collection agencies, established in 1957, filed an application with the Financial Directorate for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland for restitution of the property formerly belonging to Nelly Me. In 1963 the claim for restitution was rejected on the grounds that the sale to the German Reich had not constituted a seizure as defined by the Drittes Staatsvertragsdurchführungsgesetz (“Third State Treaty Implementation Act”).

In its judicial appraisal in decision no. 1121/2015 the Arbitration Panel came to the conclusion that although the forced sale of Nelly Me.’s property in 1938 had not constituted a seizure as defined by the Third State Treaty Implementation Act, it did constitute as seizure on the grounds of persecution listed in the Entschädigungsfondsgesetz (“General Settlement Fund Law” – GSF Law). As the broader definition of a seizure in the GSF Law of 2001 overrides the narrow definition of a seizure in the Third State Treaty Implementation Act, the Arbitration Panel recommended the in rem restitution and the award of a comparable asset.

In decision no. 1121a/2015 the comparable asset was set at 130,500 euros on the basis of an expert’s report.

The Arbitration Panel recommended the in rem restitution and the payment of a comparable asset to the legal successors of Nelly Me.’s sisters Stella Ba. and Marie Mi. In decision no. 1121/2015 the Arbitration Panel was not able to take into account the applicants’ eligibility to file applications as successors of Nelly Me.’s third sister Olga Mo. due to the lack of findings that could be reached on living statutory heirs of her daughter.

In autumn 2015 the applicants’ representative submitted new evidence regarding the descendants of Olga Mo., which allowed findings to be reached on the legal succession to Olga Mo.: Her husband and her daughter, along with her entire family, had died in 1942. Two family members died in an accident; the others committed suicide in the same year.

In decision WA/RO 14/2016 the Arbitration Panel has therefore amended and supplemented its decision no. 1121/2015, extending its recommendation to in rem restitution and the award of a comparable asset to include the applications for the shares of Olga Mo.

For use by media; not legally binding upon the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution.
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