Carinthian Restitution Files and Removal Goods from the “Adriatic Depot” Published in the Findbuch

04 Nov 2016

Over 2,000 files of the Restitution Commission at the Provincial Court Klagenfurt, more than 500 records on the removal goods from the “Adriatic depot” and almost 800 new records concerning the restitution files of the Financial Directorate for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland are now available on the Findbuch.

Files of the Restitution Commission at the Provincial Court Klagenfurt

Approximately 1,680 restitution claims were filed with the Restitution Commission at the Provincial Court Klagenfurt up to 1961. The proceedings conducted pursuant to the Third Restitution Act mainly involved assets (particularly real estate) that had been seized by the Nazis in Carinthia from members of the Slovene minority. They also involved assets that had been expropriated from Slovene associations, cooperatives and religious institutions, as well as from Jewish ownership.

Thanks to the Carinthian Provincial Archive’s ready assistance, its finding aids were able to be recorded electronically by staff of the Fund, allowing the Findbuch’s data holdings on the files of the Restitution Commissions at the Provincial Courts in Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck to be supplemented by a further 2,000 records on natural and legal persons.

Removal goods from the “Adriatic Depot”

A list discovered at the Austrian State Archives/Archives of the Republic with information on predominantly Jewish removal goods from the Free Port of Trieste that had been confiscated by the Nazi authorities in 1943/1944 contains 478 records with technical data on the dispatch of the goods. The original version of the list, in the Italian language, was translated into German by member of the Fund’s staff and recorded electronically for the database.
As the list generally contained identifiers such as surname, forename, place (territory) of dispatch and intended destination, but no information on residential addresses at the time of dispatch or dates of birth, their informative value is reliant on the supplementary documentation. The list does not allow for any inferences to be made as to the nature of the stored goods, their removal or how they were put to use by the Nazis. Where owners can be positively identified, it is possible to document that removal goods under Jewish ownership were expropriated by the Nazi authorities at the Free Port of Trieste and, as such had been seized as defined by law. However, even if a name can be attributed to a certain freight, this does not necessarily mean that this person had once been its owner and sender. Under no circumstances can it be said that the list provides a comprehensive overview of the removal goods stored at the Port of Trieste.

Files of the Austrian State Archives were reviewed on spec for certain names in order to obtain clues as to the dispatch of removal goods via the Port of Trieste or dates of birth. Dates of birth were ascertained using various databases, which were entered in squared brackets in the remarks field (detailed view) as “possible date of birth”.

Restitution files of the Financial Directorate for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland

Following research carried out at the Austrian State Archives the data holdings on files of the Financial Directorate for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland for proceedings conducted pursuant to the First and Second Restitution Acts were able to be supplemented by around 760 entries. The persons in question are those who were not included in the index for this file holding as they were not directly aggrieved or their heirs were still claimants in ongoing restitution proceedings. By reviewing the restitution files and evaluating the correspondence between the Financial Directorate and its supervising office at the Federal Ministry of Finance (Department for Restitution Matters), not only close relatives and descendants were able to be determined but also people from the immediate personal or professional surroundings of those originally persecuted by the Nazi regime. In cases where these persons were to be considered persecutees of the Nazi regime, new records were created for them and the facts and circumstances of their case detailed in the remarks field; if the findings related to existing records on natural or legal persons, these were amended or supplemented.

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