“CWith this change we are correcting an error”said Eva Blimlinger, Greens/ALE MEP and rapporteur of the text, which was unanimously approved today in the European Parliament, remembering that it is a “symbolic” act, as “there are no known survivors”.
In reality, “in 1947, people sentenced to prison were excluded from reparation laws”, highlighted the MEP.
The Nazis, in addition to sending all those who had served a sentence of more than six months in prison to concentration camps, labeled them “professional criminals” and “antisocial”.
According to a study by the Center for Documentation and Archives on the Resistance (DÖW), which is expected to be released at the beginning of July this year, 885 Austrians were deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp with that label.
The deputies gave the example of Alfred Gruber, a Viennese convicted of robbery in 1936.
Despite having served his sentence and not having reoffended, he was deported after the annexation of Austria by the Third Reich and “the stigma continued after the end of the war”, according to social democratic MEP Sabine Schatz.
“There were also homosexuals, political opponents and simple defenders of democracy”, recalled liberal deputy Fiona Fiedler, who considered that Austria could, “as is often the case”, have been “better at remembering” these injustices.
Germany adopted a similar rehabilitation law in 2020, estimating that “at least 70,000″ people were covered.”
The homeless, beggars, migrant workers and alcoholics were also targeted by the Nazis.
For a long time, Austria denied its responsibility, presenting itself as “the first victim of Nazism”. It was only in the mid-1980s, under pressure from Western public opinion, that a “critical look” began to be taken at this situation.
The Alpine country, whose population, in large part, triumphantly welcomed Adolf Hitler, who was born in Austria, in 1938, provided a large contingent of cadres and soldiers to the Nazi regime and actively participated in its crimes.
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2579491/austria-reconhece-como-vitimas-do-nazismo-quem-cumpriu-penas-de-prisao
