The State Department web site below is a permanent electronic archive of information released prior to January 20, 2001.  Please see www.state.gov for material released since President George W. Bush took office on that date.  This site is not updated so external links may no longer function.  Contact us with any questions about finding information. NOTE: External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.

J.D. Bindenagel, Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Remarks to the Ebert Foundation seminar, "The German Remembrance Fund and the Issue of Forced and Slave Labor," November 1, 1999

In these current discussions about slave and forced labor, we seek some measure of justice for all forced workers who worked for German industry and the German Government during World War II. To their credit, both German industry and the German Government have stated their intent to provide some justice for this last large group of individuals not covered by any past or current German compensation program. German Chancellor Schroeder has been extremely helpful and supportive of this process. The Chancellor ensured that this issue would remain a focus of his government by asking one of Germany's leading elder statesmen, Otto Graf Lambsdorff, to act as his representative in the negotiations.

The Urgency of Our Effort

The full dimensions of what happened during that era of depravity underscore the importance of trying to provide some justice -- justice however belated -- to the survivors of the Holocaust, many of whom are U.S. citizens. It imposes an obligation on the Administration, the Congress, and state and local governments to help secure a measure of justice before it is too late. Israel Singer, the President of the World Jewish Congress, has reminded us that each year 10% of Holocaust survivors pass away. We must not let a biological solution complete Hitler's evil plans for a "final solution."

In December 1997, then Under Secretary of State Eizenstat set as a goal the resolution of the bulk of the material claims arising out of the Holocaust era before the end of the century and the beginning of the new millennium. While this date is 2 months away, we are working hard to meet it. While we shall not have finished our work by December 31, 1999, we are hopeful to have in place the mechanisms that can yield a comprehensive agreement and rapid distribution of funds and assets to survivors and their families.

Let me dispel one myth at the outset. The efforts here are for all slave and forced workers without regard to religion or national origin. This is true of both slave laborers, who were concentration camp inmates or confined to ghettoes, and also true for forced laborers who worked for German industry or in the public sector. Indeed, as you are well aware, the percentage of non-Jewish concentration camps was quite high, about 42% according to Professor Lutz Niethammer's research. Of course, the forced laborers were overwhelmingly from eastern Europe, in particular from Poland and Ukraine.

The details about how the Nazis forced some 12 million workers deported to Germany from central and eastern Europe or relocated in their own countries to work in German industry and agriculture, freeing German men to fight on the front, are not new. However, the horrible crime of the century cannot be forgotten. By its own admission, German industry became an integral part of the Nazi war effort and now the current leaders of German industry have chosen not only to remember the past but also to establish a foundation that would make dignified payments to former victims and fight intolerance in the future.

Similar action is being taken to pay unpaid insurance policies that the Nazis often forced insurance companies to pay over to them rather than the policyholder the cash surrender value of policies taken out by the people persecuted and exterminated. This justice is long overdue from the companies that after the war refused to pay living beneficiaries.

Much the same can be said for the Nazi's looting of works of art on a scale unprecedented in history, although much of it was returned to its owners at the end of the Second World War.

Private and communally owned property, from synagogues to cemeteries to schools and community centers, were plundered on a vast scale; much of that has yet to be returned to its owners.

The Consistency of U.S. Policy

The effort to bring a measure of justice to Holocaust survivors and their families did not begin with this Administration or this Congress. It has been a consistent part of U.S. policy for half a century.

As far back as 1945, the United States Government instructed U.S. forces occupying Germany to ensure that stolen property be restituted. Through a massive effort by the U.S. and its allies, millions of dollars of stolen property was returned during the first 5 years after the war. In 1947, the U.S. military government issued decrees on restitution on which German authorities modeled German restitution law after West Germany was established in 1949. The 1952 Transition Agreement and the 1955 Convention on Relations with the Federal Republic of Germany preserved the German restitution system established under Allied legislation and led to the establishment of the German system for compensating victims of Nazi persecution. German restitution programs, notably the German Federal Compensation Law (BEG), to date have processed over 4 million claims and paid claims amounting to over DM 100 billion.

More recently, in 1990, as part of the U.S. agreement to the reunification of Germany, the U.S. asked for and received assurances that the German restitution and compensation programs would be extended to victims living in East Germany who, under the policies of the former German Democratic Republic, had until then been denied adequate compensation for Nazi-era wrongs.

In 1996-97, the U.S. Government was directly involved in encouraging the German government to extend the program to victims living in the Russian Federation, Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine who had been "double victims" of both Nazism and communism. Compensation programs were extended to East Germans and a property compensation and restitution law was passed and implemented.

The U.S. Government has also concluded its own bilateral agreements on this subject. One, concluded in 1992, covered claims for property located in East Germany confiscated by the G.D.R. from U.S. citizens. Additional agreements for one-time payments to U.S. citizens interned during the War in concentration camps were also negotiated.

All of these property restitution and compensation programs, while significant, were not sufficiently comprehensive and thus left gaps. What we have been doing is trying to close these gaps.

U.S. Policy Objectives

The consistency of U.S. policy on Holocaust issues has served important U.S. foreign policy interests. They include the furtherance of the close cooperative relationship this country has had with Germany, one of our most important allies, as well as with the nations of eastern Europe; the maintenance of stability in Europe; and the removal of impediments to greater cooperation and unity among the nations of that continent. More broadly, the horrors of the Holocaust provided a lesson applicable to contemporary events. The firm actions of the United States and NATO in Kosovo were and are motivated in part by an unwillingness to repeat the world's indifference to the plight of peoples subjected to persecution reminiscent of the Holocaust.

The International Community

In attempting to achieve justice for Holocaust survivors and their families, the U.S. has been joined by many nations. In 1997, the London Gold Conference brought together 42 countries seeking to uncover the full implications of the Nazi plundering of gold during World War II. At that conference, the international community created a Nazi Persecutee Relief Fund with assets of $61 million, much of which was contributed by nations in the form of gold. The fund is an international effort with contributions from 18 countries. Managed by the British Government, with the account held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Nazi Persecutee Relief Fund channels money precisely to provide basic relief to survivors of Nazi persecution. Each country can target its contribution. With respect to the U.S. pledge to provide $25 million to the fund, for example, for the first FY1998 tranche of $4 million, we chose to spend the money providing support to the neediest "double victims" -- of both Nazism and communism -- abroad, and we selected a proposal by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, an organization representing 23 Jewish NGOs globally, to administer it. The Claims Conference, using its expertise in this field and its pre-existing contacts with local aid networks in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, is currently bringing needed food, medicine, and clothing to Holocaust survivors in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and the Baltics. We are working with Congress as we select projects for the FY1999 contribution and seek to obtain funding for the FY2000 final balance of the U.S. pledge.

In 1998, the international community again met, this time at our invitation in Washington, to deal with other assets stolen during the Holocaust and never returned -- among them art, insurance, and communal property. This groundbreaking conference set us on our current path, which I shall detail later. Also in 1998, the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims was established under the Chairmanship of former Secretary of State Lawrence S.Eagleburger, to honor unpaid insurance claims and create a humanitarian fund for victims. In short, we have seen in the last few years a sharp increase in activity reflecting a notable international consensus to achieve a measure of justice for Nazi victims of the 20th century, so that we can enter the 21st century with a clearer conscience.

U.S. Government Involvement

Our involvement in the slave and forced labor issue dates from last autumn, when we were asked by the German Government to help facilitate a resolution of the class action lawsuits filed in U.S. courts arising from slave and forced labor during the Nazi era. Our efforts have been in conjunction with 16 German companies and the German Government on an industry initiative to establish a foundation to make payments to victims of slave and forced labor and other victims of wrongs committed by German companies during the Nazi era.

German Foundation Initiative, a foundation to be funded jointly by the German Government and German industry, was proposed by the German companies last February in recognition of their moral responsibility for the behavior of all private companies during the Nazi era. The foundation has two main objectives:

• To make payments to surviving forced and slave laborers who were forced to work for German industry; and
• To create a "Future Fund" to support projects to honor the memory of those who perished, to work against tyranny, and to provide benefits to heirs.

It is highly significant and helpful that German industry has proposed that the private sector foundation cover former employees even if the companies no longer exist today. Their foundation would also cover those who worked for public sector companies that have been privatized. This foundation would thus cover many more victims than those included in the current lawsuits filed in U.S. courts. It is a much broader humanitarian effort to bring a measure of justice to former forced laborers.

In addition, the German Government has proposed the establishment of a complementary federal foundation to make payments to those not covered by the industry foundation. This federal foundation would extend the coverage even beyond the industry foundation to include a much larger group of survivors. I will have more to say about German Government efforts regarding both the industry and federal foundations in a moment. But let me outline the international process for resolving the forced and slave labor issue.

The Participants

These German proposals are currently the subject of intensive discussion in plenary and working groups co-chaired by Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Stuart Eizenstat and Count Lambsdorff. The participants are:

• Five central and east European Governments and the German-financed Reconciliation Foundations located in these countries
• The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany;
• The Israeli Government;
• Plaintiffs' attorneys representing former laborers in class action lawsuits in U.S. courts;
• Representatives of German corporations currently supporting the foundation; and
• The German and U.S. governments.

Financial Negotiations

Since our first plenary meeting in mid-May in Washington, we have focused our efforts on the structure of the private sector foundation and ways to achieve "legal peace" for German companies. By late August, discussions on the administrative and legal aspects were far enough advanced for the issue of payment levels to be discussed. This began in Bonn August 24-26, and was continued here in Washington October 6-7.

German Government Efforts

As a result of German Government efforts, there are now 35 German companies willing to join the industry foundation, more than double the original 16. The German Government is also committed to make its own contribution to the foundation proposed by German industry. We are urging the Germans to assure that the foundation covers forced workers in the public sector and makes adequate provision for forced workers in agriculture.

Need for a Negotiated Settlement

There are two main reasons why we support resolving these claims through a negotiated settlement rather than through litigation: First is the age of the survivors -- now averaging around 80 years -- necessitates an expeditious solution. Second is that the number of victims who would be covered by the joint German company/Government foundation would be much greater than those covered by the lawsuits pending in U.S. Courts -- that is, it would include private companies that have disappeared, public companies (both those being privatized and those continuing to exist); municipal authorities; and agriculture. Thus, justice will be better served if agreement can be reached to establish the German Enterprises Foundation rather than to place Holocaust-era victims at risk in uncertain and lengthy litigation.

The central unresolved issue is the amount of the payments to be made to slave and forced laborers. The German companies have argued that they have no legal liability in U.S. courts, but they have clearly indicated their moral responsibility for the gross abuses inflicted on millions of forced and slave laborers during the war. It is now time that they make a proposal consistent with their moral responsibility not only for their own workers but for all forced workers employed in German private industry during the Nazi era.

By the same token, I hope that plaintiffs' attorneys are aware that the initial monetary demands they have put forward in this negotiation are not considered realistic by German industry or the German Government and make it more difficult to muster public support in Germany for helping fund a reasonable solution. They will need to show flexibility if these cases are to be resolved within the lifetimes of the survivors they represent.

Despite the wide disagreement over payment levels, I feel we have nevertheless come far in this process. Our goal is to resolve the remaining differences and reach agreement in principle on all slave/forced labor issues before the end of the millennium, as Deputy Secretary Eizenstat said at the Washington Conference last December.

Distribution Plan and Delays

You are no doubt fully aware of the difficulty of achieving everyone's goal of making payments to former forced and slave laborers in their lifetimes if this matter is left to litigation. As I have noted before, the victims die at the rate of 10% a year. We need, therefore, to support the most expeditious resolution of this issue and keep the interests of the survivors uppermost in our minds.

For this reason, we are seeking in negotiations to obtain agreement not only on the financial amount of the settlement but also on the distribution plan for payments. We do not want to face the same delays that have occurred in the Swiss settlement. Unfortunately, obtaining agreement on the distribution has extended the negotiations by several months. We nonetheless hope to have an agreement in principle by the end of the year.

We also need to ensure that those residents outside the five central and east European countries, which have the five German-Central and East European Reconciliation Foundations that will likely distribute the payments, can also apply for funds. The German Government and industry have offered DM 6 billion, which was not accepted by the victims' groups. The Germans are now considering whether to revise their offer. They are being encouraged by their own government to make an appropriately generous financial offer. The German public has shown over the years a great sensitivity to their moral responsibility and is supportive of the German companies' current effort

Conclusion

The negotiations are planned to continue November 16-17 in Bonn. This will be the first opportunity for the other participants to respond formally to the German offer of DM 6 billion. We also expect that the German side will present an increased offer during the course of these meetings

Through a number of mergers and direct investments over the years, German companies are very much part of the U.S. economy and act also as American corporations. I am hopeful that they are ready commit the resources that would be commensurate with the moral responsibility they feel they have for the behavior of German companies during the Nazi era as well as their interest in good corporate citizenship appropriate to the excellent reputation the German economy has achieved in the past half-century.

[end of document]

Holocaust Issues Home Page
Bureau of European Affairs Home Page.
DOSFAN Home Page.