A Historical Study on War Victims Relief Act in Austria after 1945

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K12943
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: History of Europe and America
• Research Institution: Meiji University
• Principal Investigator: MIZUNO HIROKO 明治大学, 文学部, 専任教授 (20335392)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 戦争犠牲者 / 犠牲者援護政策 / オーストリア現代史 / 戦争障害者 / 国民福祉 / 国民

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this research is to clarify what kind of postwar compensation system was established when Austria, which had been under the Nazi regime during wartime and integrated into the war economic system, promoted national reconstruction and social integration. Mainly based on the investigation of unpublished materials, it investigated the process of enactment of the "War Victim Support Act", which was a legislative law that included most of the people who had suffered from bombings and the conscription during the war as well as their bereaved. The main focus of this research was on the principles and logic that transformed “wartime welfare” into “national welfare”. As a result, it revealed that WWI and WWII war victims could be united as "Austrian nation", while "racially" or “religiously” persecuted victims like Jewish people were to be excluded from the postwar compensation system for the Austrian nation.

Free Research Field

歴史学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の意義は、戦時中ナチ体制下に置かれていたオーストリアの国家再建・国民統合が、戦後補償制度の整備を通して進められたことを歴史的に明らかにした点にある。とくに、身体に障害を負った従軍兵士らへの補償や戦没者の遺家族（女性と子ども）など国民の大部分を包含する立法であった「戦争犠牲者援護法」の制定は、「戦時福祉」から「国民福祉」へと転換する際に重要な役割を担ったことを明らかにした。しかしそこにはWWI期とWWII期の戦争犠牲者を「オーストリア国民」として一つに統合する一方、ユダヤ系のような迫害の犠牲者を排除する動きがみられたこともわかり、国民福祉の排除と包摂の両面に光を当てることができた。