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British Paper Assails Krupp Compensation Agreement on Slave Labor

December 29, 1959
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One of England’s most widely circulated newspapers, the London Sunday Dispatch, one of the Rothermere chain of papers, has condemned the agreement under which the Krupp firm of West Germany will pay compensation to Jews who worked as slave laborers in the Krupp plants during World War II.

In an editorial yesterday, the paper asserted that Alfred Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, owner of the industrial empire, has a fortune “reared on the blood and misery and starvation of 12,000 Jewish slaves who worked for him during the war.” The paper said the Krupp offer was “mean-spirited” and “tawdry” and termed it the “most grasping, clutching, derisory ‘gift’ in recent memory.”

Under the agreement reached between Krupp and the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Krupp agreed to pay about $1,190 to each former slave laborer who could prove that he worked in a Krupp plant during the war. Compensation would be paid regardless of the length of time served and heirs of laborers would also be compensated.

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