Nazi victims must claim now for compensation

VILNIUS - Lithuanians who believe they are eligible for compensation for forced labor under Nazi Germany have two months to submit their claims.

Gunther Saathoff, general commissioner of the German foundation Memory, Responsibility and the Future, said application forms for making a claim are available at the Lithuanian Center for the Investigation of Genocide and Resistance in Vilnius and must be submitted by Dec. 31.

More than 20,000 people have made inquiries about compensation since Feb. 2000, but claim forms have been sent out to only 2,000.

Algirdas Stankevicius of the Vilnius-based center was not certain how many Lithuanian citizens could expect to be compensated for being forced to work for the Nazi war effort.

"Some people won't be able to file for compensation, since under German law heirs can only make claims if the forced laborer remained alive until Feb. 16, 2000," he explained.

People imprisoned in ghettos and concentration camps can demand compensation by falling into a category in which they can file for up to 15,000 Deutsche marks ($6,900).

A second category includes people deported and forced to work for the German war effort. They can claim up to 5,000 Deutsche marks.

A third is made up of those forced to work on farms or in private enterprises, people deported but unable to demonstrate that they were forced to work, and children deported along with their parents. Third-category laborers can expect up to 1,500 Deutsche marks - but only if there are sufficient funds to cover claims in the first and second categories.

A total of 835 million Deutsche marks have been allotted for compensation.

Claimants must present documentary evidence, such as archival extracts, to make claims. If they can't, they should show photographs and testimonies by witnesses.

Compensation payments will be made directly to the claimants' bank accounts in Lithuania. The foundation is thinking about whether to make direct deposits to Russian bank accounts if the claimant wants that.

Earlier controversy surrounded the German foundation's plans to route payments through Russian intermediaries. Although all parties agreed that payments would be made directly to Lithuanian residents, a Russian intermediary foundation is handling the Lithuanian claim forms.

That agreement provides for a complaints division to be set up, which will be made up of three representatives, from Germany, Russia and Lithuania. People whose claims are rejected, or those who believe they have been put in the wrong category, can appeal to this division.

The genocide and resistance center earlier reported that a figure of 10,000 people forced to work in the Third Reich live in Lithuania. This is all that remains of the forced labor of 30,000 Lithuanian citizens, 10,000 of them Jewish. The majority of the Jews died in the camps, while most ethnic Lithuanians survived the horror.

A total of around 7.6 million foreign slave workers hailing from 20 different countries worked in Nazi Germany and its occupied territories during World War Two.