Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 21:19:19 -0400
Reply-To: vmontgo32@JUNO.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Victor Montgomery <vmontgo32@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: Volkswagen Launches Fund for Nazi-Era Slaves
As Coyote has aptly stated....this is not a political forum.
Go elsewhere with your holocaust story.
Victor...
On Sat, 19 Sep 1998 15:55:55 -0400 James Cohen <jscohen@SPRYNET.COM>
writes:
>This story was sent from the H20 list.
>I am VERY pleased with VW for this. Good for them. They have taken
>responsiblity for past sins, and want to atone for it.
>
>That is very impressive, even though it's very late. I applaud VWs
>effort.
>
>MB, and BMW do not seem to have the class of VW.
>
>James
>
>
>
>>
>>Volkswagen Launches Fund for Nazi-Era Slaves
>>By Fiona Fleck
>>
>>BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG, the German automaker founded
>under
>>Hitler's Nazi regime, announced Friday it was launching a 20
>million-mark
>>($11.87 million) fund to compensate its World War II slave laborers.
>>Volkswagen -- Europe's biggest automaker, which relies on exports for
>more
>>than
>>half of its business -- announced plans to create the fund in July
>for
>>elderly
>>survivors, many of whom live in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
>Union.
>>The move came in the face of increasing pressure on German industry
>from
>>Holocaust survivors and former slave laborers to redress injustice
>from the
>>1933-45 Nazi era.
>>``The company has decided, effective immediately, to create a Private
>>Relief
>>Fund,'' VW spokesman Klaus Kocks said in a statement released after a
>>supervisory board meeting at the company headquarters in Wolfsburg.
>>``The fund will be adequately financed and have a budget of 20
>million
>>marks,''
>>Kocks said.
>>Kocks said Volkswagen had not been legally obliged to provide
>restitution
>>because Germany had already paid extensive postwar reparations --
>more than
>>100
>>billion marks ($60 billion) to date.
>>But the fund was a gesture in recognition of the company's shared
>moral
>>responsibility, he said.
>>Historians say VW, founded in 1938 to build the ''Volkswagen'' or
>>``People's
>>Car,'' bought the labor of about 7,000 slaves from Hitler's SS elite
>force
>>between 1941 and 1945. Their work included building mines, V-1
>rockets and
>>antitank launchers.
>>Overworked, underfed and with little time off, many of the workers
>died
>>under
>>the appalling conditions.
>>German historian Hans Mommsen, who was commissioned by VW to write a
>study
>>about
>>its Nazi-era use of slave labor published in 1996, said it was
>impossible
>>to
>>say
>>how many were still alive today. He put a rough estimate at below
>1,000.
>>Klaus von Muenchhausen, a German academic who represents about 150
>Jews who
>>were
>>forced to work for VW, welcomed the fund as a good piece of
>``start-up
>>capital,'' but said that the key issue was how much each individual
>would
>>receive.
>>``We will not accept any tips here. People have become rather
>angry,'' he
>>said.
>>``Basically, this has come 50 years too late,'' he said, referring to
>the
>>vast
>>majority of survivors of Nazi slave labor who have died since the
>war.
>>Muenchhausen said Volkswagen employed about 1,500 Jewish
>concentration camp
>>inmates. Of those, about 200 are still alive today.
>>In June, Muenchhausen, who won recent court battles for compensation
>for
>>former
>>slave laborers in Bonn and Bremen, threatened to sue VW if it failed
>to
>>reach a
>>settlement.
>>U.S. lawyers also named VW as one of several German companies they
>might
>>target
>>in class-action lawsuits seeking restitution for unpaid wages.
>>A month earlier, Swiss banks, threatened with an economic boycott by
>>several
>>U.S. states, agreed to a landmark $1.25 billion settlement with
>Holocaust
>>survivors over unreturned assets in dormant Nazi-era accounts.
>>Fearing they could also become embroiled in costly lawsuits, VW and
>several
>>other German companies, including car makers BMW, Daimler-Benz AG
>(DAI -
>>news)
>>and engineering giant Siemens AG, signaled readiness to compensate
>unpaid
>>wages.
>>Virtually every major German company used slave labor during the
>Third
>>Reich.
>>Nazi Germany is estimated to have forced more than 12 million
>foreigners
>>into
>>slavery from across its occupied lands, working in every sector from
>>industry to
>>domestic service.
>>Of those still alive today, 1.5 million live in Eastern Europe and
>less
>>than
>>1
>>million elsewhere.
>>German companies for decades rejected individual claims from former
>Nazi
>>slaves,
>>arguing that the German government -- as legal heir to the Third
>Reich --
>>was
>>liable for damages.
>>Although Bonn has paid 100 billion marks ($60 billion) in reparations
>since
>>the
>>end of the war, many Nazi slave laborers were left empty-handed by a
>legal
>>loophole in international treaties governing postwar reparations.
>>
>
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