''A Mutual Responsibility and a Moral Obligation'': The Final Report on Germany's Compensation Programs for Forced Labor and Other Personal Injuries

233 Pages·2009·6.76 MB·English

by  Michael Jansen, Gunter Saathoff

“A Mutual Responsibility and a Moral Obligation”
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“A Mutual Responsibility
and a Moral Obligation”
The Final Report
on Germany’s Compensation Programs
for Forced Labor and other Personal Injuries
Edited by
Michael Jansen and Günter Saathoff
on behalf of the Foundation
“Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”
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Contents
Foreword and Prefaces
Preface by the Editors to the English edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Foreword by President Horst Köhler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Preface by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the
Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Lutz Niethammer
From Forced Labor in Nazi Germany to the Foundation
“Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
I. From work-motivated migration to racism and extermination . . . . . . . . . . 18
II. Postponement and return of the compensation question . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
III. Establishment of the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” 48
Michael Jansen, Günter Saathoff, Kai Hennig
Final Report on the Compensation Programs
Carried Out by the “Remembrance, Responsibility
and Future” Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
I. An Overview of the Federal Foundation
“Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
II. The payment program for forced laborers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
III. Other personal injuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
IV. Property claims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
V. Insurance claims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
VI. Humanitarian funds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
VII. Financial management in the Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
V III. Conclusion of payment program for forced labor, insurance losses
and “other personal injuries” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
IX. Use of residual funds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
X. The Remembrance and Future Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Portraits of Former Forced Laborers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Philomena Franz (Juri Durkot) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Vladimir Naumov (Alexander Sosnowski) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Yefim Gorin (Sabine Brandes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Karl Pajuk (Vera von Wolffersdorff) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Marian Siewiera (Gabriele Lesser) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Annex
Statement by Federal President Johannes Rau concerning the agreement
on the level of Foundation funding for compensation of the victims of forced labor,
issued on December 17, 1999, in Bellevue Palace, Berlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
The Law on the Creation of a Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility
and Future” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Announcement of the German-American Agreement concerning
the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Statistics
1. Statistics on the Funding Ceilings Defined
by the Foundation Establishment Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
2. Statistics on the Payments to Former Forced Laborers
and their Legal Heirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
3. Statistics on the Payments to Former Forced Laborers
and their Legal Heirs by Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
4. Statistics on Payments Within the Ceiling for “Other Personal Injury” . . . . 222
5. Statistics on the Payments for Property Claims by Country . . . . . . . . . . 223
6. Statistics on Compensation for Holocaust-Era Life Insurance Policies . . . . 224
Members of the Board of Trustees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Members of the Foundation’s Board of Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Partner organizations and other organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
The Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Photography Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
6 Contents
Preface by the Editors to the English edition
It was not until the year 2000 that Nazi-era the establishment of the Foundation. The
forced laborers, both Jewish and non-Jew- German government asked Professor Niet-
ish, first received compensation payments hammer in 1998 to develop a concept for
from the Federal Republic of Germany for the Foundation. This concept would form
work they performed under the harshest of the initial basis for the subsequent inter-
conditions and for the injustice inflicted national negotiations.
upon them by the Nazis. This situation One half of the Foundation’s capital
changed with the conclusion of the inter- a ssets were provided by the German gov-
national negotiations held from 1998 to ernment while the other half was paid by
2000 under American and German auspices G erman business. The establishment of the
and the founding of the Foundation “Re- Foundation and the associated U.S.-German
membrance, Responsibility and Future.” Executive Agreement simultaneously serv-
This publication begins with an intro- ed to protect German companies in the U.S.
ductory essay outlining the historical di- against further legal action.
mension of forced labor performed in the An essential part of this book is the
Third Reich both for institutions of the r eport on the complex process of imple-
Nazi state and for private German compa- menting the Foundation’s mission of dis-
nies and households. Moreover, the essay tributing the payments mandated by the
documents the conflict-laden international agreement to surviving forced laborers and
debate leading up to the establishment of other victims of Nazi injustice in nearly
the Foundation. It is clear that the Founda- 100 countries around the world. Given the
tion would not have taken the shape it has age of the victims, this was truly a “race
nor been endowed with the financial base against time.” Such an extensive and inter-
provided (then valued at 10 billion German national program to pay out compensation
marks or 5.1 billion euros) without the to victims of Nazi injustice had never been
class-action suits filed in the U.S. against realized before. This work would not have
large German companies and without the been possible without the cooperation that
cooperation between the German and U.S. existed among the Foundation, the seven
administrations. For this work, we were international partner organizations and the
able to enlist the services of renowned likewise multinational Board of Trustees.
G erman historian and noted forced labor The board membership included not only
specialist Professor Dr. Lutz Niethammer U.S. government representatives, German
to depict the chain of events that led up to politicians, and an American lawyer for the
Preface by the Editors 7
victims but also representatives of those in English translation. It is consciously
countries that had suffered the most under aimed at an international public, given that
German occupation and Nazi forced labor the majority of the forced laborers in ques-
(Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Czech Republic tion came from the countries of Central
and Belarus) as well as representatives of and Eastern Europe and the survivors
victims’ associations and of the State of today live either in those countries or in
I srael, which was founded after the war. I srael, America, Asia or Australia.
The Foundation and the partner orga- Something else that speaks in favor of
nizations were successful in gathering and publishing this report in English is the fact
processing the claims, verifying the entitle- that most of the lawsuits against German
ments and finally paying out compensation companies, which generated such a strong
to more than 1.66 million surviving forced impetus for the establishment of the Foun-
laborers and other Nazi victims, all within dation “Remembrance, Responsibility and
a period of six years. During this time, tens Future” and its compensation programs,
of thousands of further Nazi victims who were filed in the United States and evoked
had suffered property losses, health dam- a great deal of interest there.
age caused by criminal human experiments, To illustrate the various aspects of the
or “insurance losses” also received the issues involved, this volume contains rep-
financial payments provided for in the resentative personal portraits of former
Foundation Establishment Act. The report forced laborers as well as an extensive
also describes the special fund created by appendix documenting, among other things,
the Foundation Establishment Act to bring relevant international agreements and a
humanitarian and medical aid to tens of verbatim document of the act that grew out
thousands of especially needy Jewish, Sinti, of the international negotiations to estab-
and Roma victims of Nazism. lish the Foundation “Remembrance, Re-
The Foundation’s payment programs for sponsibility and Future.” The interested
Nazi victims—for forced laborers as well reader is given a detailed report which
as for victims of insurance and property clearly illustrates that the evolution and
loss—were formally concluded in 2007 work of the Foundation served as a poli-
by resolution of the international Board tical “lesson” in dealing with historical
of Trustees and with the consent of all rep- i njustice, despite the fact that this lesson
resentatives from the participating coun- was not learned until many years following
tries. All the funds were paid out to the the events of World War II.
beneficiaries or, where residual moneys The Foundation will in future continue
existed, used by the seven partner organi- to learn the lessons of history. The parties
zations to pay for humanitarian and medi- that established the Foundation, the Ger-
cal programs to help Nazi-era victims. man parliament and the U.S. government,
The Board of Directors decided to pres- had already in 2000 decided that the Foun-
ent a final report on the Foundation’s com- dation should continue to operate even
pensation programs that would contain a a fter all compensation programs have been
description of the legal and practical prob- concluded. It will primarily function as a
lems that occurred along the way and that “promotional foundation,” supporting
would be written for consumption by a i nternational projects aimed at preserving
wider public. After publication in German the memory of Nazi injustice for current
in 2007 this report is now being presented and future generations, at promoting in-
8 Preface by the Editors
ternational understanding and at fostering In December 1999, the former German
d emocracy and human rights. president Johannes Rau declared publicly
The section of the report on the payment his satisfaction with the agreement reached
programs was compiled with the assistance through international negotiations to settle
of the members of our academic research compensation payments to former forced
staff. The Board of Directors would like to and slave laborers. He labelled this project
thank all those who contributed to the com- a commitment to “a mutual responsibility
pletion of specific chapters of the report. and a moral obligation” of the German
The individual contributions to this pub- government and the German industry that
lication fall under the editorial responsibil- derived from the wrongs that were per-
ity of the respective authors. The copyright petrated by the Nazi Regime. We chose
situation regarding the representative por- this expression as the title for this publica-
traits and photos reproduced here can be tion. Johannes Rau’s declaration is printed
taken from the picture credits. in its entirety in the Annex (p. 173).
Dr. Michael Jansen
Günter Saathoff
Berlin, autumn 2008
Preface by the Editors 9