For the most recent distribution data concerning Slave Labor Class I, please click
here.
Slave Labor Class I consists of those claimants who performed slave labor for German
and other companies which may have transacted their profits through Swiss entities.
For more information on Slave Labor Class I, please read Annex H of the
Distribution
Plan.
Studying the research
of the leading scholars and based upon other sources, the Special Master concluded
that the Nazi regime had exploited the slave labor of hundreds of thousands of Victims
or Targets of Nazi Persecution in every corner of its realm. In addition, the Special
Master analyzed the International Tracing Service’s Catalogue of Camps and Prisons
in Germany and Germany-Occupied Territories, Sept. 1, 1939-May 8, 1945 which also
contains names of German entities that used slave labor, and compared the Catalogue
to the Volcker Commission’s list of German persons or entities that had a Swiss
bank account at the time of Switzerland’s February 16, 1945 asset freeze. This analysis
demonstrated that virtually all of the most notorious slave labor-using entities
maintained banking ties in Switzerland or owned other assets in Switzerland, and
supported the presumption that “virtually all German companies that employed slave
labor also ‘deposited’ or ‘transacted’ the revenues or proceeds of this labor in
Switzerland” as set forth in the Court’s order granting approval of the Settlement
Agreement.
Therefore, all Victims or Targets of Nazi Persecution who performed slave labor
for private entities, entities owned or controlled by the state or Nazi authorities,
or by the concentration camp and ghetto authorities, were deemed members of Slave
Labor Class I. This Court-adopted presumption helped to streamline the distribution
process by enabling the Court to utilize the same administrative agents, the Claims
Conference and the IOM, and adhere closely to the procedures that had been adopted
under the German Foundation’s Slave and Forced Labor program.
The Distribution Plan
originally provided for payments of $1,000 each (subsequently increased to $1,450)
to surviving slave laborers, or to their heirs if the former slave laborer died
on or after February 16, 1999. For a brief overview of the Court-supervised Claims
Conference Program for Jewish members of Slave Labor Class I, please click
here.
For a brief overview of the similarly Court-supervised IOM program for Roma, Jehovah’s
Witness, homosexual and disabled former slave laborers, please click
here.