Germany is closing one of the last chapters of its Nazi past this week. The establishment of a 10 billion deutsche-mark fund (520 billion yen) to compensate those who were slave laborers during World War II will, in the words of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, set down "a durable marker of historic and moral responsibility." It is a long-overdue gesture and one that Japan should note. The campaign to win compensation for the injustices committed during that war will soon focus on this country.
There are more than 1 million survivors of Nazi enslavement or forced labor. Most of the 240,000 surviving slave laborers, who were held in concentration camps, are Jewish; many of them have already received some payment from the German government for the sufferings inflicted upon them by the Nazis. Another 750,000 to 1 million former forced laborers, who were in detention camps, are Central and Eastern Europeans who are not Jewish. Although the German government already paid out about $60 billion in compensation for Nazi crimes, payments made to the East European victims were kept by the communist governments during the postwar era. It is estimated that 80 percent of the payouts from the new fund will go to non-Jewish people. Indeed, the new fund is historic because it recognizes and compensates those victims for the first time.
The fund, to be called "Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future," was set up after two years of difficult negotiations. Each former slave laborer will receive DM15,000; each forced laborer will be paid DM5,000. The cost of the fund will be split between the German government and German industry. Mr. Schroeder said the government will provide its DM5 billion immediately so that the payouts could begin this year.