A law limiting to six months the period during which former slave laborers in the Auschwitz plants of the IG-Farben chemical trust can file claims against the firm was adopted here unanimously by the Bundestag, lower house of the West German Parliament.
The $7,150,000 out-of-court settlement signed in February by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the trustees of IG-Farben was counting on upon the adoption of this law before the end of April. Since the settlement won the approval of an IG-Farben shareholders’ meeting earlier in the month, two major obstacles have been removed from its path.
Under the German Civil Code, the legal period of grace for the filing of claims would normally have extended until 1958. Since the $7,150,000 can be pro-rated and distributed only when it is known how many claims have been filed altogether, both parties favored to abridgement of the period of grace through legislative action. The new law still requires assent by the Federal Council and the signature of President Heuss.
After the six-month period of grace has expired, both the Conference on Jewish Material Claims and IC-Farben will be entitled, by virtue of the settlement terms, to withdraw their signature during the following three months. If no such action is taken, the settlement will then enter into fore.
To verify application by Auschwitz survivors and administer payments, the Conference on Jewish Material Claim has set up a trusteeship corporation under German law in Frankfurt, Dr. E.G. Lowenthal, a veteran Jewish communal worker, has been named executive secretary. Eligible for compensation under the settlement are all J wish or political inmates of Auschwitz concentration camp employed for slave labor in nearby IG-Farben factories–chiefly the Buna-Monowitz synthetic-rubber plant, but also Fuers-tengrube, Heydebreck and Janina. So far, 6,000 former slave laborers have already registered. The amount of payments will depend upon the total number of qualified claimants who apply, and is to be varied in accordance with the length of the period during which the slave labor was performed.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
