Ex-nazi Slaves Called To Testify In Us Class Action
The Sunday Age
Sunday March 7, 1999
Lawyers are urging all former Nazi-era slave laborers living in Australia to join an international legal fight in the United States courts to seek compensation.
A New York attorney, Mr Edwin Fagan, who has filed a series of class-action lawsuits against banks, insurance companies and industries on behalf of Holocaust survivors, is in Melbourne to discuss the case with former slave laborers.
Mr Fagan estimated that the global compensation settlement could amount to tens of billions of dollars. He said all former slaves of the Third Reich living here, regardless of religion or country of origin, could join the legal fight in the US.
Given the desire of the German Government and major German firms to see the matter settled as quickly as possible, Mr Fagan said that, optimistically, it could be resolved by as early as the end of this year.
A St Kilda lawyer, Mr Henry Burstyner, has already registered more than 500 potential Australian claimants, most living in Melbourne, to join the US legal action collectively. He said the final number should be in the thousands.
Among the 263 companies being pursued by Mr Fagan in the US Federal District Court in New York over their exploitation of slave laborers during World War II are international giants like Daimler Chrysler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Krupp, Siemens and Leica.
``These companies were built in great part on the blood, sweat and tears of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people and I don't know of a single person who would have suffered the torture and slavery that they did for any amount of money," Mr Fagan said.
``And the reason these companies should pay is because either they or their predecessors were guilty of the worst crimes ... and, in order for them to be respected in the world business community, they have to pay for their sins."
Mr Fagan said the survivors wanted the companies to account for human rights violations, including slavery and genocide, for the theft of property and services, for unjust enrichment and for conspiracy with the Nazis.
Having sustained an international bruising, Switzerland's two largest banks recently settled $US1.25 billion (A$2 billion) class-action suits filed by Holocaust survivors claiming unreturned assets dating back to the Third Reich era.
But Mr Fagan said this was ``peanuts" in comparison with what he expected to be the outcome of the class-action suits against German and Austrian industries, given the huge numbers of slave laborers.
Under a plan advanced by the German Government, and aimed at removing worldwide threats to ban foreign investments by them and to head off legal action, some of Germany's biggest companies are preparing to compensate former slave laborers.
They include Volkswagen, BMW, Bayer, Hoechst, BASF, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Degussa-Huels, Krupp Hoesch and the Allianz insurance company.
Mr Burstyner said the issue could threaten the German economy if it was not justly settled and it was vital that the pressure be maintained to secure such a resolution.
``It's more than 50 years since 1945 and they have had that time to settle," he said.
Mr Fagan and Mr Burstyner will address a public meeting on the US class-action lawsuit on behalf of former Nazi-era slave laborers at the Beth Weizmann Community Centre in Caulfield at 7.30 tonight.
© 1999 The Sunday Age