Negotiations fail to resolve dispute over compensation exchange rate

Negotiations yesterday failed to resolve the dispute between Poland and Germany on the exchange rate used for calculating compensation payments for victims of slave labor under the Third Reich. The German side rejected Polish demands for full payment to the former slave laborers who have already received their money at an unfavorable rate. It also refused to pay the next installment, to an additional 70,000 victims, at a more favorable rate. To date, 110,000 Poles forced to work as slave laborers under the Nazis have received compensation. The unfavorable exchange rate is estimated to have cost them zl.54 million in total. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 6) A.Z.