A recent two-volume publication was presented at a commemoration of the 15th Anniversary of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism hosted by the Embassy of Austria in Washington, D.C. on May 13, 2010.

The publication provides a comprehensive overview of Austria’s National Fund, which was established in 1995 to provide a symbolic gesture of reconciliation to Austrian Holocaust survivors throughout the world by in the way of one-time payments to former victims and their heirs. Meanwhile the Fund has gone beyond its original mandate and expanded its goals by sponsoring projects for scientific research and commemoration, care and pension benefits to Holocaust survivors living in poverty, restoration of Jewish cemeteries as well as restitution of art works.

Volume I, entitled, “National Fund,” covers the history, origins and development, function and impact, views by dignitaries of the Fund, together with a section on the General Settlement Fund.

Volume II, entitled, “Lives Remembered,” is a collection of life stories of Holocaust victims who, in the fact of persecution, loss of family members, physical and psychological brutality, were remarkably resilient and went on to lead lives of renewal and achievement.