Austria ? Austria on Thursday began the process of compensating Holocaust victims robbed under the Nazis, mailing notifications to the first survivors eligible for payments.

The fund created by Austria in 2001 to compensate those stripped of businesses, property, bank accounts and insurance policies under the Third Reich mailed letters to 100 of the 19,300 survivors who have applied.

The letters say how much the victims will receive, along with a form they must sign and return promising not to sue Austria or Austrian companies that benefited from the taken property, said Hannah Lessing, general secretary of the General Settlement Fund.

Andreas Kohl, Austria’s parliament speaker and chairman of the fund’s board, said he was determined to see the first payments go out before year’s end, and he pledged to devote three hours on Monday to signing another 1,300 letters.

Vienna was home to a vibrant Jewish community of some 200,000 before World War II. Today, it numbers about 7,000.