Israel paid 'Nazi debt' for villa
The Moller villa has been the Israeli ambassador in Vienna's residence for 65 years; new ambassador Talya Lador-Fresher consulted archives and discovered that Israel received the house after paying a wartime debt.
The State Archive and Israel's Ambassador to Austria, Talya Lador-Fresher, successfully solved a historical mystery recently – the origins of the Moller Villa in Vienna, which has been the official residence of Israel's ambassadors since 1950. An examination of the relevant archives revealed that the Israeli government had to pay a debt "inherited" from the Nazis in order to gain ownership of the house.
The house, considered an architectural gem, was planned in 1928 by architect Adolf Loos as a simple white cube in the functionalist style. Loos was against external decoration, but designed the interior lavishly, using marble and precious woods.
Upon her appointment as ambassador, Lador-Fresher approached the state archive with a request to examine materials on early ties with Austria, which recognized the State of Israel in 1949. Lador-Fresher was particularly interested in the ambassador's official residence.
The villa was donated to Israel by its owner, Hans Moller, a member of the family that founded the Ata textile factory near Haifa. It was captured by the Nazis following the annexation of Austria and returned after the war – along with a demand that the city of Vienna pay taxes for the years it didn't have possession of the house. An angry Moller transferred the house to the custody of the Israeli government, hoping it would know what to do.
Lador-Fresher turned to Foreign Ministry veterans, including former ambassador to Austria Yoel Sher, but no one could tell her whether Israel ever paid the debt.
Following Lador-Fresher's questions, the State Archives began to look through old records and eventually struck gold. A 1950 document was found that verified the donation of the house and noted that the government had paid a debt of about 45,000 Austrian schillings.
A document sent by Israel's second consul in Vienna, Arieh Eshel, describing the house's condition at the end of 1950, was also found.
He wrote that the house required renovations and refurbishing, adding that he "cannot live in a magnificent shell whose interior is furnished and designed like a living room in a kibbutz shack. The garden is nothing but a field of thorns and brambles, and in the service apartment meant for the groundskeeper there lives a communist who was persecuted by the Nazis, and his family."
