New compensation controversy
The latest development in the long-prepared compensation scheme for former forced labourers in Nazi
Germany has generated another row between the German and Polish partners involved. Now the issue at hand is the exchange rate according to which individuals eligible for compensation and resident in Poland should receive their money.
For the first slice paid on 15 June, the management of the German foundation responsible for the payments applied an exchange rate of PLN 3.3466 to the Deutschmark, which is an unrepresentatively low rate. In fact, for some months the Polish zloty has been much stronger than this.
If applied throughout, this exchange scheme would reduce effective payments to Polish Nazi victims by some PLN 63 million (EUR 18.6 million).
Rage over lawyers' fees
Representatives of Jewish organizations have labeled as "obscene" the fees that the lawyers working on the compensation case are apparently about to receive.
The published figures indicate that the 51 legal personnel working on the case in Munich, New York and Washington will receive DEM 118 million (EUR 60.4 million), some of them DEM 34.5 million each.
Paul Spiegel, chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, called on the lawyers to give at least part of this money to welfare; it would, otherwise, be very starnge to see the lawyers cash in millions, while their clients can only expect some DEM 15,000 (EUR 7700) on average.
In the same vein, the vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (commonly known as the Jewish Claims Conference), Roman Kent, has criticized the American lawyers involved.
More money for victims of Communism
In a move meant to balance a recent rise in pensions for former GDR civil servants, the Bundestag has decided to also raise payments for persons persecuted by the then Communist regime.
In the future, these payments will be based on the highest income received by those concerned before they were ousted by East German authorities.
While additional costs in this case will be a mere DEM 40 million (EUR 20.4 million) per year, the pension funds for former GDR civil servants will bring a yearly increase of DEM 1 billion (EUR 500 million).
Jens Boysen, 22 June 2001
Moving on:
Sources:
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Der Spiegel
Die Zeit
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