Friday, 25 August,
2000, 07:24 GMT 08:24 UK
Swiss firms face
slave labour deadline
Holocaust victims
Holocaust
survivors have long fought for compensation
By Imogen Foulkes in
Bern
Swiss businesses are facing
a Friday deadline to declare whether or not they
benefited from slave labour
during World War II. The date was set by a judge in the United States, who
is presiding over the class action suit brought by Holocaust survivors
against Swiss banks.
The two biggest Swiss banks have already agreed to
a $1.25bn settlement in
return for immunity from prosecution. If Swiss
companies agree to provide information about their wartime history, they too
will be protected from future legal action.
It is two years since the
big Swiss banks agreed to the settlement, but so
far not a penny has been
paid out to Holocaust survivors. The banks were first in line for legal
action because they were believed to be holding thousands of dormant accounts
belonging to people who had died in the Nazi concentration camps and refusing to
hand over the money to surviving relatives.
But as more details of
Switzerland's wartime history came to light, it
became clear that insurance
companies, private banks and many Swiss
companies also profited from the war.
It is now believed at least 11,000 slave labourers were
employed by Swiss
companies with affiliates in Nazi Germany. Some of the
companies using slave labour remain among the most famous in Switzerland - for
example engineering firm Brown Boveri, or food giant Nestle, whose German
affiliate Maggi replaced the swastika flying over its factory with the Swiss
flag just hours before the arrival of allied forces in 1944.
Claiming
Swiss nationality brought these companies protection from war
reparations,
but over half a century later, New York Judge Edward Korman has
told them
they must provide details of their wartime dealings and be ready
to join the
global settlement with the banks, or face punitive class actions
of their
own. Some Swiss companies have already agreed to join the $4.8bn slave labour
fund set up by Germany and many more are expected to comply with Mr Korman's
deadline.
Once they do, a plan to distribute the fund to Holocaust
survivors can
finally be drawn up and first payments are expected by the end
of the year.