Members of the British House of Lords bitterly criticised as inadequate today the plans of German industrialist Alfred Krupp to pay 500,000 pounds sterling compensation to the 12,000 surviving Jews who had worked as slave laborers in Krupp’s industrial empire during the Nazi regime.
Lord Stoncham asked whether “40 pounds per head is an appropriate compensation to the Jews who have suffered under this man whose personal fortune is now estimated at 14,000,000 pounds.”
Lord Lansdowne, Joint Parliamentary Undersecretary for the British Foreign Office, replied that the British Government could not pass judgment on an action taken voluntarily by foreign subjects. He added that the deadline for filing of compensation claims by former Krupp slave laborers had been extended from January 25, 1960 until January 31, 1961 and that a full report on the matter would be presented to the British Government by the mixed committee set up to study the question.
Other members of the House of Lords also sharply condemned the “inadequate compensation” as well as Allied policies in West Germany. Lord Altmore said those policies had made “this slave labor user the richest man in Europe.” Other peers recalled the sufferings of the Jewish slave workers during the war years.
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.
