Compensation Question: My husband was a prisoner slave labor for four years at the mist famous of infamous concentration camps he was fifteen years old a Polish citizen. Why is he unable to receive retributions or compensate for his labor as others have? He is told he doesn't fit in the payable categories which are: Jewish, Homosexual, Mentally impaired Jehovahs witness or Gypsy. This is a very interesting question for which I have never received a response Marty Kelley answers: Thank you for writing. I am one of the volunteers who answers questions for the Holocaust History Project. There has been a very significant new development in this area: on July 17, 2000, the German government signed an agreement to compensate those who were slave laborers and forced laborers under the former Nazi regime. Your letter doesn't indicate who told your husband that he was ineligible for compensation or whether he was told that before or after the recent international agreement, but compensation for slave/forced laborors is not restricted to the groups you mention. The Polish American Congress ( http://www.polamcon.org/ )provides a comprehensive discussion of the terms of the recent compensation recent agreement. Their newsletter at http://www.polamcon.org/newsletr/NaziSlaveLabor-index.html covers the terms of the agreement. The PAC website also includes a printable claims application form, available in both English (http://www.polamcon.org/newsletr/claim-instr-engl.html)and in Polish (http://www.polamcon.org/newsletr/claim-instr.html) (If you are writing from outside the U.S., it may be necessary to pursue compensation claims through a different channel than the Polish American Congress) I hope that this information will be helpful to you. Cordially, Marty Kelley, Ph.D. Faculty of Language and Culture Osaka University Japan back to the list of questions
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