Compensation amounts announced for Nazi-era slave laborers from Ukraine (10/08/00)

Compensation amounts announced for Nazi-era slave laborers from Ukraine

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Ukrainian National Fund on Mutual Understanding and Reconciliation announced on September 26 that Ukrainians who worked as slave laborers in the agricultural sector of Nazi Germany would receive approximately $750 in a one-time compensation award.

Although the amount is much less than what other wartime slave laborers will get in a historic settlement that Germany agreed to this spring, the agreement settles one of the central unresolved disputes on the issue of who should receive compensation for their forcible toil in support of Germany's war machine during World War II.

During negotiations that lasted more than a year a central point of friction was resistance by the German side to provide compensation to Eastern Europeans, mostly Ukrainians and Poles, who worked as agricultural slave laborers on German farms and agricultural communes. The German side claimed that agricultural workers lived in much more humane conditions with sufficient food and proper shelter, and therefore did not deserve material reparations.

After protracted negotiations the parties decided to identify agricultural workers as a category of slave laborers, but left the amount of individual compensation up to the national representatives who would be assigned to handle the claims. The agreement made it clear that the amount given to the agricultural workers would come from the general award received by each country, and, therefore, would curtail the compensation awarded to members of other categories.

In the general agreement, which was signed on March 28, the German government and German companies that existed during World War II agreed to a compensation package of 10 billion DM ($5 billion U.S.) for dislocated slave laborers, mostly Eastern Europeans, who were forced to move to Germany to work in ghettos, concentration camps, prisons and factories, as well as on farms, to support Germany's war effort.

Germany agreed to pay Ukraine $862 million - the third highest settlement award after Poland and the Jewish Claims Conference, which were allotted $906 million each.

It is estimated that more than 2 million Ukrainians worked involuntarily as ostarbeiters (workers from the East) during World War II. Today approximately 610,000 are presumed alive: 14,488 former concentration camp and ghetto internees, 278,821 industrial laborers and 303,245 agricultural workers.

The National Fund for Mutual Understanding and Reconciliation, which has been appointed to oversee the settlement of claims in Ukraine, announced that, in addition to the $750 for agricultural workers, concentration camp and ghetto workers would receive 15,000 DM ($7,500 U.S.), forced industrial laborers would obtain 4,300 DM, while children who were forced to move with their parents would receive 1,500 DM.

The organization also announced that another category of ostarbeiters had been recognized to include detainees in Gestapo prisons, donor points, quarantine camps and children's indoctrination camps. People who can prove they fall into these categories are eligible to receive between 5,000 DM and 12,000 DM.

The agreement between the claimants and German officials, which was approved by the German Parliament in July, is the largest settlement ever of its type.

The Ukrainian National Fund for Mutual Understanding and Reconciliation is currently accepting applications from victimized individuals. To receive compensation individuals must show conclusive documentation that they fall into one of the categories recognized in the agreement. Although the Ukrainian organization has extensive records at its disposal, it recommends that those who need to obtain hard evidence of their enslavement by the Germans can turn either to Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Red Cross or to local German city, town and village administrations, many of which have retained registration lists of wartime workers in their areas.

German officials have told their Ukrainian counterparts that money will be ready for disbursement by the end of October, with the first awards expected to take place in December. Victims will receive their compensation in two tranches.

Ostarbeiters who worked in concentration camps or in ghettos, as well as those who are more than 80 years old or are invalids (regardless of the category into which they fall) will receive priority in the release of the awards. The Ukrainian fund underscored that all wartime slave laborers who were still living as of February 15, 1999, are eligible. Compensation for those who have passed away since then will be awarded to immediate family only.

While most details of the slave labor compensation agreement now have been resolved, some minor disputes remain, including a requirement that those receiving compensation must sign a disclaimer for any future claims. The Ukrainian fund is questioning the veracity of such a requirement because the current settlement does not include damages suffered by people whose property was destroyed and valuables taken during the war by the retreating German army.

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