ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the particular Austrian experience in trying to overcome its National Socialist past. Following the 17 January 2001 agreement, the first piece of legislation adopted by the Austrian Parliament was for a final compensation for the losses of property in the following categories: apartment and small business leases; household property; personal valuables and effects. More than six decades after the “Anschluss” and some 55 years after Austria’s liberation from the Nazi dictatorship by the Allied Powers, the Austrian public has become increasingly aware that this country, while having admitted, in recent years, its share in the moral responsibility for the crimes of National Socialism, has not done enough in the past to meet its material obligations vis-a-vis the victims of that era. The special features of recent restitution negotiations can be summarized as: willingness to assume moral responsibility for past acts; joint effort on all sides to establish the “historic truth”; and so on.
