The International Auschwitz Committee disclosed today it was negotiating with industrial firms in West Germany for the indemnification of Auschwitz inmates forced to work in the plants during the war.
Herman Langbein,the committee secretary general, said that, in talks to date, the Siemons Schuckert Werke has denied responsibility, on grounds it was forced to employ concentration camp labor.
The Union Werke denied liability, asserting that the present company was not identical with the munitions factory under the same name established in Auschwitz.
Langbein said the committee also was conducting talks with the West German Finance Ministry regarding compensation for personal property taken from the prisoners when they arrived in Auschwitz.
In another move, the committee disclosed today that Kurt Knittel,school administrator for the Karlsruhe Board of Education, is one of the 950 persons now under investigation by the public prosecutor here on charges of participation in Auschwitz camp crimes.
According to the committee, Knittel headed the instruction of SS guards in the Auschwitz murder camp. One of his duties, it was charged, was to reassure SS guards who had scruples about the extermination of camp inmates.
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