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October 4, 2000
Update on German and Austrian Forced Labor Class Action Litigation
Rutherford NJ – As previously reported, a settlement has been reached on July 17, 2000 with German Industry and Government regarding payments to former forced laborers. Austrian negotiations are still ongoing and a swift solution to the Austrian slave/forced labor class action litigations is anticipated in the near future.
In accordance with the German Settlement, the German parliament has approved on July 14, 2000 the creation of a German Foundation which will oversee the entire compensation program. The governing body of the Foundation has met in August & September and is proceeding to initiate its activities. The Foundation has appointed the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as the official entity to collect victim data and to distribute payments to non Jewish slave and forced laborers who reside outside Central & Eastern Europe. The IOM will also handle all property claims regardless of residence and religion. Slave/forced labor payments to residents of Central and Eastern Europe will be processed through existing Reconciliation Foundations in those countries. Jewish slave/forced labor claimants who reside in the West will be processed through the Jewish Claims Conference. The IOM offices in each country will be responsible for distribution of claims forms and payments to victims who reside in those countries. Once the official application forms and eligibility criteria are ready for publication, the IOM will publicize them and will contact the individuals directly. The information gathered by the Myroslaw Smorodsky Esq. and BRAMA websites is being forwarded to the IOM for integration into their database. This integration process will take about one month. The IOM will then contact these individuals directly. The deadline for submitting information to the IOM is August 11, 2001.
All inquiries by victims should now be directed to the IOM. The IOM office for the United States is located at 1752 N. St. NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036 the toll free telephone number is 866-443-5187 fax 202-862-1879. The IOM website is http://www.iom.int and http://www.compensation-for-forced-labour.org the e-mail address is srowashington@iom.int.
Additional information may also be obtained at the following Internet location. http://www.smorodsky.com/forcedlabor
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