Announcement concerning the deposit of documents with the Secretary General, ensuring the anonymity of the beneficiaries

After ten years, the Claims Committee of the General Settlement Fund ('the Fund') has almost completed its task. Following the amendment to the law on the Fund (Federal Law Gazette I no. 9/2013) the Claims Committee is now in the position to bring its functions to an end and to fulfill its legal mandate to transfer the remaining funds to the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for programs benefitting victims of National Socialism.

In order to fulfill this legal mandate, in its session on 25 June 2012 the Claims Committee adopted and published an amendment to its Rules of Procedure according to which all decisions which cannot be delivered to the applicants by 31 December 2013 [1] and which, consequently, cannot become legally binding, will be deposited with the Secretary General of the General Settlement Fund as of 1 January 2014. The deposit of these decisions will be announced on the website of the General Settlement Fund. In compliance with data protection laws, the announcements will not however reveal the identities of the beneficiaries.

After a period of one month, decisions so deposited will be deemed to have been duly delivered. After that date, applications for review of the decision in question will still be possible for a period of two months and applications for the inclusion of co-heirs for a period of three months. Upon expiry of those deadlines, all decisions will become legally binding.

The compensation payments awarded by the Claims Committee can be claimed by the entitled beneficiaries for a period of five years dating from the effective date of delivery of the decision. However, the expiry of this period will occur no earlier than 31 December 2017. [2]

Contact

General Settlement Fund for Victims of National Socialism
Tel.: +43 1 408 12 63
E: gsf-sekretariat@nationalfonds.org


[1] Reasons for a delivery not to have occurred are: applicants' updated contact details are not known; applicants have passed away before the proceedings have been concluded and heirs could not be found despite intensive research.

[2] For all decisions which were delivered up to the day of the Law's enactment on 1 January 2013, the statutory period of limitation commenced on this date, with the deadline expiring on 31 December 2017.