__________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
GERMANY
Nazi victims compensated
Bishops create fund for forced laborers, others
Germany’s Catholic bishops said on August 29 they would set up a US$4.6 million compensation fund for forced laborers and slaves of the Nazi regime who were used for work at church institutions, but the bishops refused to pay into a national compensation fund.
The German government established a DM10 billion (US$4.6 billion) public-private fund earlier this year and called on all German institutions to contribute, saying there was a total responsibility in Germany for Nazi labor practices. The country’s Catholic bishops rejected the idea of collective guilt, saying that laborers loaned to Catholic churches by the Nazis were treated well and were even paid, while the Nazis worked their own slave laborers to death.
Bishop Karl Lehmann of Mainz, president of the German bishops’ conference, said the Church will pay the $4.6 million to surviving victims via a charity. He added that many of those who worked for Catholic institutions were agricultural laborers not covered by the public-private fund.
Back to Catholic World Report October 2000 Table of Contents