Austrian Jewish Historian Begins Jail Term for Restitution Fraud

By JTA October 6, 2015

Stephan Templ, an Austrian Jewish historian who wrote a book critical of Vienna’s post-Holocaust handling of Jewish property, began serving a one-year prison term for restitution fraud.

Templ, 55, reported on Monday to Vienna’s Simmering jail accompanied by a handful of friends and supporters, including his lawyer, the human rights attorney Robert Amsterdam, who is handling Templ’s case pro bono.

Templ was sentenced by the Austrian Supreme Court last year to one year in jail for defrauding the Republic of Austria by omitting the name of a relative from an application for restitution he filled out for his mother. His defense was based on the absence of a law requiring applicants to list all relatives, and the argument that Austria could not have been the victim of his fraud as it never legally owned the property it returned. But his arguments were overruled.

The Anti-Defamation League as well as 75 scholars of the Holocaust implored Austrian authorities to avoid jailing him, noting the decision to do so seems connected to 2001 book, “Our Vienna,” in which he criticized the country’s perceived failures to offer restitution for property stolen from Jews by Austrians and Germans during World War II.

“To stand here in front of this jail in Austria, 2015, to see a Jew persecuted in this way is for me not only a shame as a lawyer, but it’s a shame as a member of the international community,” Amsterdam said on Monday.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO