Nazi slave labor compensation delayed as U.S. courts find money isn’t there

Nazi-era slave workers faced further delays on Thursday for compensation payments from Germany after a U.S. judge refused to dismiss related lawsuits. Explaining her decision, U.S. District Court Judge Shirley Wohl Kram emphasized that German companies had failed to raise the promised amount of DM 5 billion. As a result, German industry, anxious to obtain „legal peace”, which it sees as a guarantee it will not face further Holocaust-related claims in the future, decided to delay the payments again. Chief fundraiser Wolfgang Gibowski expressed his belief that the deficit was only an excuse allowing the U.S judge to sustain lawsuits.”...If we had all the money, she would have found another argument to hold things up,” he said. Lacking a solution to the problem, the Polish-German Reconciliation Fund will start paying advances of zl.1,400 per person, and then only to the oldest slave workers, those born before Dec. 31, 1921. The Fund will start sending checks to 77,000 entitled victims on Monday. (Rzeczpospolita, p.A1, Reuters) M.K.