Austria releases ex-Nazi guard
A former Nazi SS guard was freed by Austria on March 20, a day after being deported from the United States. Josias Kumpf, 83, of Racine, Wis., could not be put on trial in Austria because the statute of limitations had expired, according to the Austrian justice ministry.
The ministry told the United States before Kumpf’s extradition that he would be freed since he was younger than 20 at the time of the crimes and because he was never an Austrian citizen, nor were the crimes committed in Austria, Reuters reported.
Kumpf was born in Serbia. He immigrated to the United States from Austria in 1956 and was naturalized in 1964. He was stripped of his citizenship in 2003.
He served as an SS guard at the Sachsenhausen and Trawniki camps in Germany and Poland. Kumpf has acknowledged participating in Operation Harvest Festival in November 1943 in eastern Poland, during which 42,000 Jewish adults and children were murdered over three days. He has said his job was to shoot to kill any prisoners attempting escape, that he never actively participated in murder and that German authorities forced him into SS service when he was 17.
In stripping him of his U.S. citizenship, American judges have ruled that Kumpf violated rules that ban naturalization for individuals who “personally advocated or assisted persecution.” — jta
More money for Holocaust survivors
Following intensive negotiations between Germany and a Claims Conference that ended last week in Berlin, Germany will give major increases in monthly payments to needy Holocaust survivors in Eastern Europe.
According to the agreement, an additional estimated $80 million will be paid over the next 10 years to approximately 13,000 Holocaust survivors in 22 countries. Also, there will be major increases in monthly payments from the Central and Eastern European Fund to survivors in European Union and non-EU countries, bringing the two groups to parity.
As of next January, recipients of CEEF pensions will receive about $339 per month, which represents a 35 percent increase for those in non-EU countries and an 11 percent increase for EU residents. — jta
Germany appeals art restitution ruling
Germany has appealed a court ruling that would have returned thousands of rare posters to a Jewish man, Peter Sachs of Florida, whose father lost the collection to the Nazis, the federal culture minister said March 13.
Bernd Neumann said Germany has never shirked its “moral responsibility” for restitution to the victims of the Nazi government, but that the ruling in the case of Hans Sachs’ poster collection was overly broad and “raises fundamental questions that go far beyond this case.”
The court ruled last month that Sachs never gave up ownership of the collection of 12,500 posters taken from his home on the orders of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in 1938. His son, Peter, had sued for the return of two of the posters, but the ruling set the stage for the likely return of the entire collection, worth at least $5.85 million. They are currently in the possession of the German Historical Museum. — ap
Poland exhibiting its Jewish history
A new exhibition by the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland, brings together photos and documents depicting the rich history of 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland.
The exhibition, previewed last week in Warsaw, goes on display Wednesday,
April 1 at the European Parliament in Brussels and will run nearly a week.
With old paintings and photographs, the show recalls how Jews found refuge in Poland during the Middle Ages after being expelled from many parts of Europe. It also stresses the mark the community made on the larger, mainly Roman Catholic Polish community.
That knowledge is little known outside Poland, said European Parliament lawmaker Ryszard Czarnecki, who came up with the idea for the exhibition.
“People in the West know — and very rightly so — about the Holocaust, but they don’t know what was before the Holocaust, the hundreds of years of a very rich history,” Czarnecki said. “The Jews had their significant share in creating the Polish state, its economy, architecture, culture and art.” — ap
Lithuania to pay for seized property
Lithuania has agreed to pay $41 million over 10 years to the Jewish community to compensate for seized property. The Ministry of Justice has agreed to make payments to the Jewish community from January 2011 to March 2021 for property taken over decades of oppression.
Lithuania had returned synagogues and other places of worship to the Jewish community. Many other properties were nationalized after World War II and under decades of Soviet rule.
Minister of Justice Remigijus Shimashius told Jewish leaders in late January that the administration of President Valdas Adamkus wanted to move forward with restitution despite the current crippling financial crisis in the country. — jta