Poles and Germans discuss DM 10 billion slave-labor compensation bill

Yesterday Warsaw hosted German deputies dealing with a Nazi slave-labor compensation bill. The bill's aim is to create a Responsible Memory and Future fund which is supposed to collect DM 10 billion and thereafter pay it out to former Third Reich slave workers. However, the Polish side doesn't want the money to be paid out in installments. The first installment accounts for 35% of the whole amount. German deputy Bernd Reuter of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) declared that since Poland has good documentation of Polish Third Reich victims it should receive the whole amount. If the German Bundestag passes the bill before the holidays, the first installments could be paid out beginning in October of this year. However, German industry has not collected its amount of DM 5 billion while the same amount is to be paid out by the government. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 4) A.Z.