Germany offers Nazi-era forced laborers 3.3 billion

Washington, Oct 8: A German delegation's offer of 3.3 billion to compensate Nazi-era forced laborers was met with anger by the plaintif...

Washington, Oct 8: A German delegation8217;s offer of 3.3 billion to compensate Nazi-era forced laborers was met with anger by the plaintiffs and their attorneys as their meetings wrapped up here Thursday.

quot;It was important that there was no walk-out, and everybody wished to contribute to the process,quot; said US Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Eizenstat, who is mediating the talks.

quot;But it8217;s also clear that there will be no agreement unless both sides show increased 8230; flexibility,quot; he said.

The offer would include 1.1 billion from the German government and 2.2 billion from the German industry. Bayer, Krupp, IG-Farben, Siemens, Volkswagen, are among dozens of German firms known to have used forced labor during World War II.

quot;The world will judge them on this offer,quot; said Mel Weiss, one of the attorneys for those suing for damages. quot;With this offer, they have done more harm than we can ever imagine 8230; even if they double the amount, that8217;s inadequate.quot;

Groups representing the Nazis8217; victims had already dismissed such figures as insulting when, on Tuesday, a US source close to the talks said the total offer was likely to be in the range of 3.8-4.4 billion dollars, far short of the 20 billion dollars demanded.

Talks are to resume in mid-November, in Bonn, the German delegation said.

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The lead German negotiator, Otto Lambsdorff, said the offer was considerable considering Germany8217;s quot;severe budgetary constraints.quot;

Lambsdorff said 1.2 billion dollars was to go to quot;slave laborersquot; 8212; those who were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps. He said only 5,600 concentration camp survivors are still alive today.

Some 1.1 billion would go to quot;forced laborersquot; 8212; those who were not imprisoned but were forced to work for German factories, Lambsdorff said.

A total of 330 million dollars would be used to settle claims against German insurance companies and banks, several of which are charged with five decades of withholding assets owed to Holocaust survivors.

Victims of Nazi medical experiments would be given 220 million.

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Finally, scholarships for the descendants of forced laborers would be accorded 390 million.

Lambsdorff said that quot;although the total sum 8230; will not be debated, that is not true of the proposed allocationquot; into the various categories.

A spokesman for the World Jewish Congress, Elan Steinberg, said his organisation was disappointed with the offer, but quot;negotiations continue.quot;

A spokesman for the German firms involved in the talks implied that dissatisfaction over the offer amounted to quot;hagglingquot;:

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quot;We are not the ones that are haggling here,quot; said spokesman Wolfgang Gibowski. quot;This is an exaggerated reaction 8230; It will postpone payments to the victims.

The German offer came on the second and last day of talks here, mediated by the US State Department, with representatives from large German corporations and from Jewish groups, and delegates from eight countries: Germany, Israel, the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and the Czech Republic.