Night Of Broken Glass
SLAVE LABOR SETTLEMENT
EXPLAINED
RACHEL YOSKOWITZ
Special to the Jewish News
0
n July 17, German
Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder signed legislation
establishing a fund to com-
pensate slave laborers and forced labor-
ers for their suffering during the Nazi
era. While it is true that no amount of
money will ever adequately compensate
survivors for their suffering and loss
under the Nazis, it is also true that all
of these designated funds in the Slave
and Forced Labor Settlement should be
disbursed to the rightful recipients.
With estimates of close to 3,000
Holocaust survivors residing in metro
Detroit, many eligible survivors still
remain unknown to the Conference on
Jewish Material Claims Against
Germany (Claims Conference) and our
local Jewish community. The Claims
Conference has established a process to
assist Holocaust survivors who were
slave laborers and encourages survivors
Rachel Yoskowitz is director
of immigration and citizen services
at Jewish Family Service in Southfield.
who believe they are eligible, to apply
for the funds set aside in the Slave and
Forced Labor Settlement.
In Detroit, the Jewish Family Service
is the designated agency that can assist
all survivors with their questions about
this international settlement. JFS does
not charge to help former slave labor-
ers fill out the proper application to
receive their rightful compensation.
Following are answers to some fre-
quent questions about the Slave and
Forced Labor Settlement:
What is the Slave Labor Fund?
The Slave Labor Fund (officially
called the Foundation Remembrance,
Responsibility and the Future) was
established by the German government
with monies contributed by German
corporations that utilized slave or
forced laborers for the German war
effort in the World War II era. The
above German foundation administers
the Slave Labor Fund through "partner
organizations." In the U.S., the
Conference on Jewish Material Claims
Against Germany is the partner organi-
zation that will administer the claims
for the slave laborers, who are Jews.
SLAVE LABORERS AND
ALLOCATION
everal months ago, as a volun-
teer at Jewish Family Service,
an agency of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, I had an opportunity to
assist Holocaust survivors in fill-
ing out applications for
claims against Swiss banks.
Late in the afternoon, I
spent an hour assisting an elder-
ly survivor, a small woman with a
sweet smile and quiet demeanor.
At the conclusion of our interview,
she asked me if she could tell me a
secret that she had not shared with
any other person since her time in
the camps. I listened and we talked.
Then she asked if she could show me
Jeannie Weiner of Farmington Hills is
past president of the Jewish Community
Council and past vice president of Jewish
Family Service.
11/10
2000
30
some photos. As I nodded, she
brought out some crinkled and faded
black-and-white shots of sisters,
brothers, nieces and nephews, broth-
ers-in-law, sisters-in-law — all of
them gone — all of them young,
never to reach old age.
Quietly, she told diverse sto-
ries about what had hap-
pened to her family. Some were
never seen after entering concentra-
tion camps and another made it
through the camps but died of disease
shortly after. It was late when we fin-
ished, so I drove the woman home.
The experience for me was profound-
ly sad, and I felt renewed anger at the
perpetrators; but for her, according to
her words, she "felt a little better."
Now the process at Jewish Family
Service.-begins again. Volunteers are
being trained to assist those who are
applying for payments for having
The International Organization for
Migration will do the same for the
forced laborers, who are non-Jews.
Is the Slave Labor Fund the only
fund currently open to applicants?
No. This is the newest fund and has
just been established. The Slave and
Forced Labor Settlement is a separate
fund that should not be confused with
the Swiss Banks Fund (Holocaust
Victims Assets) or the Insurance Fund
(International Commission on
Holocaust Era Insurance Claims).
Each of these funds has its own crite-
ria for applicants, application process,
timetable and review process.
The International Commission on
Holocaust Era Insurance Claims will con-
tinue to be open for applicants through
Feb. 11, 2001. Individuals who have filed
a preliminary claim through the Swiss
Banks Fund Settlement have received a
proposed Plan of Allocation that will be
decided upon after Nov. 20, 2000.
How do I file an application?
The application form is short and
biographical. Since the JFS can help
you with the application, it is not nec-
essary to seek legal aid for this process.
There are three different ways to file,
one method for each category of eligi-
ble applicant:
• BEG pension recipients (BEG is
the English translation for the German
Wiedergutmachung) have received two
letters in the mail from Germany. They
are marked Erklarung. These need to
be signed and returned to the Claims
Conference at the Tel Aviv Post Office
in Israel, as listed in the letters.
• The Article 2 Fund recipients will
receive a similar letter later this month.
This letter needs to be signed and
returned to the address listed in the letter.
• Other Holocaust survivors who
did not receive either letter, and
believe that they are eligible for slave
labor payment, will be able to file a
separate application for compensation.
These application forms will be avail-
able at JFS in December 2000.
Application deadline will be Aug. 11,
2001, and, again, the JFS will assist
survivors in filing the applications.
If I filed an application for the
Swiss Banks Fund, do I have to file
another application now for the
Slave Labor Fund?
Yes. The Swiss Banks Fund and the
Slave Labor Fund are different funds.
They have different eligibility standards
and a different application process.
Can I file an application on behalf of
my deceased relatives who were sur-
vivors?
This settlement (the Slave Labor
Fund) is open to survivors who were
alive on Feb. 15, 1999. In the event
Deutsche mark remaining when the
deadline for payment arrives. The
German corporations and multi-
national businesses have avoided con-
fronting this issue for decades, but at
last compensation has been
discussed and negotiated.
While it is certainly late
and neither justice nor com-
pensation could in any way
approach a satisfactory
measure, the settlement has
been offered and those sur-
vivors who are still here to
Rightful Action
receive it should do so.
We continue to remain
For some people, the very
EANNIE WEINER angered by the length of
concept of payment is trou-
Special to the
time that has passed and the
bling; yet those survivors
Jewish News
number of survivors who
who have been deemed
are no longer alive to
"appropriate" by the
receive
compensation.
We rage at the
German government to receive the
injustice
of
the
small
amount
of rec-
funds, have an absolute right to
ompense,
the
confusing
process
and
them.
the knowledge that the businesses
The "negotiated" settlement
and large corporations coming for-
amount coming from companies and
ward now to recognize their involve-
multi-national corporations, who
ment believe this can wipe out their
were doing business with Germany at
guilt and complicity.
the time, should be paid out com-
The Holocaust and its lasting effects
pletely. There should be not one
been slave and forced laborers during
World War II. Survivors living in this
area who were in concentration
camps and ghettos, or other places of
incarceration, who were forced to
serve as laborers without
receiving compensation,
may be eligible to apply for
compensation from the
Conference on Jewish
Material Claims Against
Germany.