World War II-era slave labor profits estimated at $95b.
By TAMAR HAUSMAN
JERUSALEM (November 15) - German banks and companies using slave and forced labor during the Holocaust profited reportedly by as much as DM 180.5 billion ($95b.) in 1999 currency valuation, according to a report due to be released today in Berlin.

The report was issued by the Foundation for Social History of the 20th Century, a nongovernmental research institution in Bremen, Germany which houses a substantial stockpile of documentation from the Nazi era.

Edward Fagan and Michael Witti, who are among the lawyers representing Holocaust victims in the claims against German industry, commissioned the study.

The results have important implications for the next round of negotiations over compensation to slave and forced laborers, scheduled to convene in Bonn tomorrow. The talks include representatives from German industry, lawyers representing victims of the Nazis, and officials from Germany, the US, Israel, and Central and Eastern Europe.

The estimate is "extraordinarily high" and "will create a major problem" in reaching a compromise with the German government and industry, said one of the victims' lawyers.

Victims' lawyers have reduced their demand for compensation by more than half, to $12b., according to sources in New York. The combined offer from the German government and industry, which was announced last month, was about $3.3b. There were unconfirmed reports yesterday that the Germans were prepared to increase their offer to nearly $5b.

The German study on profits "will embolden claimants" to expect a high settlement and it will certainly be rejected by the German government and industry, said one source. "We'd be remiss if we didn't take a moment and reassess this demand."

The estimate is some DM 70b. more than the total sum Germany has paid in reparations to Israel and Nazi-era victims since the war.

Fagan and Witti will present the study to representatives of all the parties in the negotiations, including the Claims Conference, chief German mediator Count Otto Lambsdorff, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eizenstat, and the representatives of Israel and Eastern European countries.

In order to come up with the figure, the foundation's historians sifted through the balance sheets of Germany's biggest banks and other companies, among them Deutche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Siemens, Allianz, Daimler, and BMW.

This week's talks, which are a continuation of those held in Washington in October, commence under a cloud. Survivors' lawyers were persuaded to attend only after Eizenstat intervened.

German industry has insisted that any agreement put an end to class-action lawsuits that have been filed against them in US federal courts, and cover any future war-era labor claims.