Austrian Jewish Historian Begins Jail Term for Restitution Fraud
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.
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.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
