Buried In The Past

Lothar Furth and his relatives were once described as "aristocrats of merit, vigorous and assured, at ease with diplomats, with professors of philosophy, with the great physicians and artists." And not all of them have perished.

In a story full of revelations, perhaps the most surprising is that Chris and Rich Andrews are not the only living Furth heirs. In researching this story, 60 Minutes discovered that another branch of the Furth family is alive and well on the east coast of America - a branch of the family that Chris and Rich never knew about. One of them is Alfred Strasser, who recalls listening to the radio as an 11-year-old on March 13, 1938, the day of the Anschluss.

"I was crazy about classical music, and the Vienna Philharmonic was broadcasting Schubert's Unfinished Symphony," recalls Strasser. "And it was interrupted to announce that the German troops had crossed the Austrian border."

Another Furth relative is 96-year-old Eva Perl, Furth's first cousin. She was born at Schmidgasse 14.

All of the surviving Furth relatives have put in claims for the family holdings seized by the Nazis. But as Muzicant told Pelley, Schmidgasse 14 poses an especially difficult problem. If the relatives get the building back, will they be able to throw the Americans out?

No, says Muzicant, "because they are protected under rent control. This is the law."

In U.S. dollars, the rent comes to about $2,500 a month, a very reasonable amount. Muzicant says it's "peanuts for such a building."

When 60 Minutes asked the State Department about Schmidgasse 14, they sent this reply: "The question of the building's disposition is an issue between the government of Austria and those claiming ownership. We will take the appropriate action depending on the ultimate disposition of the property."

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