German forced labor settlement at a crossroads (12/12/99)

German forced labor settlement at a crossroads

by Myroslaw Smorodsky

BONN, Germany - The sixth in the series of negotiations between representatives of forced/slave laborers and German Industry ended on November 17 without the negotiators finding a solution that would be acceptable to both the victims and the companies. The date and time of the next crucial meeting has not been established, but it is expected to take place before Christmas of this year.

Although both sides have made considerable concessions in their respective positions, the negotiators find themselves at a crossroads, where an inappropriate or obstinate move by any of the numerous parties can torpedo the negotiations into failure.

The negotiators are fully cognizant of the fact that failure would deprive hundreds of thousands of victims of any hope of compensation whatsoever. On the other hand, German industry would be bogged down in numerous lengthy legal battles that, even if they were resolved in favor of Germany, would expose German industry to public scrutiny and criticism for its actions during World War II.

In October of this year, German negotiators had offered a total settlement of 6 billion DM. At the November 17 meeting in Bonn, after intense closed-door negotiations between each of the individual victim groups, German representatives and U.S. government negotiators, German industry increased the offer to 8 billion DM.

Although these individual negotiation sessions were aimed at dividing the victims groups, the Eastern European delegation and the plaintiff's lawyers were able to maintain a unified position and stated that this new offer still is insufficient.

The German negotiators also reversed their prior position and stated that their settlement offer would not be based on compensating agricultural and domestic workers. However, the negotiators for both sides made it clear that any settlement payments that would be made to the individual country delegations would be in a lump sum and it would be left to the discretion of each of the Eastern European delegations to include farm workers in the individual compensatory payout.

The latest round of negotiations in Bonn concluded with both sides putting forward their anticipated range of settlement: 6-10 billion DM on the German side and 10-15 billion DM on the victim side. Both sides were cautiously optimistic that the next meeting in mid-December should see success in the negotiations.

For further information visit http://www.smorodsky.com/forcedlabor/ or contact: Myroslaw Smorodsky at Smorodsky & Stawnychy, 75 Union Ave., P.O. Box 1705, Rutherford, NJ 07070; telephone, (201) 939-1999; fax, (201) 507-3970.

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