VIENNA (EJP)---The president of the Jewish community of Vienna, Ariel Muzicant, slammed what he said was the government’s failure to care for Austria’s often derelict Jewish cemeteries.

He also deplored the fact that government ha s still not introduced a clear financial plan for building a Wiesenthal Centre of Holocaust studies in the Austrian capital.

“18 cemeteries, which have been partially destroyed, were abandoned during 70 years,” Muzicant told European Jewish Press.

There were 62 Jewish cemeteries in Austria until 1938, year of the annexation of the country in the Third Reich.

Most of them were destroyed between this date and the end of WWII.

The Austrian government had signed in 2001 the agreement of Washington intended to assure the restoration and maintenance of all Jewish cemeteries in the country. "Nothing has been made since then," Muszicant said.

At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the Conservative-Socialist government again agreed in principle to both a Wiesenthal institute and the renovation of Jewish cemeteries, but offered no concrete financing proposals or timetable for the projects.

"I am loosing patience," Muzicant told EJP. He added: "If we don’t have a solution by the year end, we are going to open law cases and call for arbitration." "The small Jewish community of Austria, numbering 7,000 people, cannot maintain the cemeteries."

He said that the government, local and regional bodies are quarrelling over whom should assume the financial responsibilty for the restoration.

"It’s a ping pong game and we are the ball," he added.

After World War II, a law was drawn up in Austria to maintain the graves of all fallen Wehrmacht and SS soldiers, "but the graves of the Jews, whose families were deported and murdered, are allowed to fall into dilapidation," he said. 

According to him, the creation of the Wiesenthal institute is not only a Jewish matter but "it is an important institution for Austria."