Restitution

In the 1950s, the Federal Republic of Germany, and later also Austria, agreed to provide partial financial compensation to those persecuted for racial, religious and political reasons during the Holocaust. This happened mainly under pressure from the Allies and various international Jewish organisations. One of these organisations was the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO), which was founded in 1948 by 13 international Jewish organisations to locate and retrieve heirless private and communal property in the U.S. occupation zone in Germany. The US military government had authorized the JSRO to use any recovered resources to help survivors and refugees in need.
The “Linz Collection” testifies that Simon Wiesenthal played a very active role in this process in Austria.