: (For whatever reasons, the price of gold leapt to $288
: Friday.)
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: Friday May 18 1:58 PM ET
: U.S. Welcomes Court Ruling on Holocaust Suit

(Price of gold back down to $274 Wednesday the 30th.)

Wednesday May 30 4:25 PM ET

Germany Clears Last Hurdle for Slave Labor Payout

By Emma Thomasson

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany on Wednesday cleared the final obstacle to begin paying compensation to a million or so survivors of Nazi slave labor camps, more than half a century after the fall of Hitler's regime.

The German parliament Bundestag (lower house), ending months of legal wrangling, voted overwhelmingly to unblock a $4.5 billion fund and start immediate payouts to labor camp survivors, most of them in eastern Europe.

``This is a sign, a sign that will make clear around the world that Germany is conscious of the terrible crimes of its past and will remain so,'' Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told lawmakers in Berlin's restored Reichstag parliament building.

The Nazi regime, in what Schroeder's negotiator described as ''the darkest chapter of our history,'' was using some 10 million civilian foreigners and prisoners of war as laborers by 1944.

Up to 1.5 million survivors are expected to apply for compensation -- most of them from formerly Communist eastern Europe who missed out on earlier West German reparations payments
because of the Cold War.

Those held in camps or ghettos, including many Jews, are entitled to about $7,000 while those forced to work in factories will be eligible for $2,200.

Schroeder, in his comments in parliament, admitted payments of a few thousand dollars each at most would not right past wrongs.

``Truly putting things right, in the real meaning of the words, is hardly possible,'' he said.

The government will evenly split the 10-billion-mark bill for the fund with German firms, including big names like carmaker Volkswagen and insurer Allianz, which were prompted to set up the fund by lawsuits launched in U.S. courts by survivors several years ago after the Berlin Wall came down.

As of this week, 6,351 firms had contributed.

Washington and Berlin signed a treaty last year to set up the fund after two years of negotiations. But German firms agreed to go ahead with their payments only last week after a U.S. court
dismissed major litigation against them -- the companies had made payment conditional on an end to lawsuits on the issue.

Once the firms did so, all that remained was for parliament also to recognize that ``legal closure'' had been achieved.

[snip]

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