Chapters 29, 30 and 31 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 29: 'All Quite Openly, Publicly and Legally'

Although 65,459 Austrian Jews had been killed during the war, no one was held to account—the government granted amnesty to the majority of the Nazis. The property of the families was taken "openly, publicly and legally." Austria could do nothing about the loss of property and about those who took it. Austria itself was a victim of the Third Reich. A law to recover property was passed in 1945 but it was virtually unenforceable. In 1948, 191 books were returned to the heirs of Viktor Ephrussi. Records for the art work were sketchy and the pieces were untraceable. Elisabeth continued to work at retrieving the family's possessions for many years. She sold what was recovered and split the money between family members. Finally in the early 1950s the family agreed to renounce any further...