GERMANY: GERMAN AND US OFFICIALS AND VICTIMS' LAWYERS SIGN HISTORIC FINAL COMMPENSATION DEAL TO THOUSANDS OF NAZI SLAVES AND FORCED LABOURERS

Record ID: 648387

  • Title: GERMANY: GERMAN AND US OFFICIALS AND VICTIMS' LAWYERS SIGN HISTORIC FINAL COMMPENSATION DEAL TO THOUSANDS OF NAZI SLAVES AND FORCED LABOURERS
  • Date: 17th July 2000
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (JULY 17, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. WS WIDE OF DELEGATIONS AWAITING SIGNING CEREMONY AT FOREIGN MINISTRY 0.06 2. SV EDWARD FAGAN, NEW YORK BASED LAWYER FOR HOLOCAUST VICTIMS, TALKING TO WOMAN 0.12 3. MV DELEGATIONS 0.17 4. SV JOSCHKA FISCHER, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER, IN DISCUSSION 0.22 5. WS WOLFGANG GIBOWSKI (SPOKESMAN FOR GERMAN COMPANIES PAYING INTO THE FUND), STUART EIZENSTAT (CHIEF U.S. NEGOTIATOR) AND OTTO LAMBSDORFF (GERMAN GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATOR), POSING FOR CAMERAS 0.28 6. WS WIDE OF DELEGATES SEATED 0.33 7. SV SOUNDBITE (German) GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER JOSCHKA FISCHER: "This foundation expresses our historic responsibility for the injustice and the harm done to the victims as is the formal excuse in 1999 by (German President) Johannes Rau in front of survivors. This foundation and its future fund is also directed towards the future and is a great chance to learn from the past for the future". 1.04 8. MV OTTO LAMBSDORFF SIGNING 1.20 9. MV APPLAUSE (2 SHOTS) 1.38 10. SLV WOLFGANG GIBOWSKI (SPOKESMAN FOR GERMAN COMPANIES PAYING INTO THE FUND), SIGNING 1.50 11. MV APPLAUSE/ CAMERA OPERATOR (2 SHOTS) 1.55 12. MV STUART EIZENSTAT SIGNING 2.23 13. WS WIDE OF CEREMONY/ OVARIOUS OF DELEGATES SIGNING (7 SHOTS) (2 SHOTS) 3.19 UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION, GERMANY (FILE) (REUTERS) 14. VARIOUS OF SLAVE LABOUR (9 SHOTS) 3.36 15. AERIAL OF CAMP/ PRISONERS BEHIND BARBED WIRE FENCE/ IN CAMP ON BEDS/ VARIOUS OF CONCENTRATION CAMPS (11 SHOTS) 4.16 16. MV WOMEN SHOWING NAZI TATTOOS (6 SHOTS) 4.35 UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS, GERMANY (FILE) (REUTERS) 17. VARIOUS EXT OF COMPANIES INVOLVED IN THE CONPENSATION (6 SHOTS) 5.04 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 1st August 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BERLIN , GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA7AWHMBOW2IACOJ407DLEXRVBQ
  • Story Text: German and U.S. officials and victims lawyers have
    signed a historic final deal to pay 10 billion marks (4.8
    billion USD) in compensation to hundreds of thousands of Nazi
    slaves and forced labourers.



    The fund is likely to be Germanys last big payment
    for crimes under Adolf Hitler's rule which have cost Germany
    60 billion USD in reparations since World War Two.

    Government representatives from Germany, the United
    States, Israel and eastern Europe as well as American lawyers
    for the victims signed the deal in Berlin which was reached
    after drawn-out and often acrimonious negotiations.

    The German government contributed half of the compensation
    with the other half pledged but still not yet raised in
    full, by over 3,000 German companies. First compensation
    payments to survivors should be made this year.

    The signing ceremony, attended by chief U.S. negotiator
    Stuart Eizenstat, ends 18 months of tense talks that centred
    on German firms' calls for protection from future claims
    relating to their Nazi pasts.

    About 900,000 surviving former slaves and forced labourers,
    now in their 70's and 80's, will receive payments of up to
    around 15,000 marks.

    Wolfgang Gibowski, spokesman for German companies paying
    into the fund, said 230,000 firms, including those not in
    existence in Nazi times, had been sent letters asking them to
    contribute.

    Aside from being employed by some of Germany's biggest
    companies, millions of forced labourers were employed in small
    firms, as housemaids and even within church organisations.


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