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Bundesverband Informations-
und Beratungsstelle für NS-Verfolgte
Amerikanische und englische
Agenturen zur Ford-Klage
Copyright 1998 by United Press International. All
rights reserved.
DEARBORN, Mich., March 4 (UPI) -- A class-action lawsuit
demanding compensation for former Nazi slaves is re-opening old wounds for
Ford Motor Co. and prompting the automaker to research records from World War
II.
Ford is the target of the suit filed Wednesday in U.S.
District Court in Newark, N.J., on behalf of thousands of Europeans forced by
Nazis to build trucks at a Ford factory in Cologne, Germany. The suit comes a
week after a BBC documentary focused on the use of slave labor at the Cologne
plant in the 1940s.
The suit also rekindles painful memories for Ford
officials by mentioning ties between Adolph Hitler and Henry Ford, and Edsel
Ford's role in the company's German operations. Ford says historians who
researched the issue in the past concluded the automaker had no control over
the Cologne plant between 1940 and 1945 while it was used by the Nazi war
machine. The company says it regained control in 1948. But the lawsuit, which
names a Belgium woman enslaved at Cologne as the principle plaintiff, claims
Ford did indeed control the plant through its Ford Werke A.G. subsidiary in
Germany and profited from forced labor. The suit seeks compensation for all
forced laborers at Cologne, damages for suffering, and "disgorgement of all
economic benefits" to Ford from slaves. Responding to the accusations, Ford
Secretary John Rintamaki issued a statement that says the company has
"instituted an active and deeper search of Ford archives" in the United States
and Germany.
Copyright 1998 by United Press
International. All rights reserved.
DEARBORN, Mich., March 4 (UPI) -- Ford Secretary John
Rintamaki says many records were destroyed in two fires, one during and one
after the war. But he adds, "When we receive the results of this effort, we
will proceed from there."
Lead plaintiff attorney Melvyn Weiss of New York City
says the suit seeks "final justice for hundreds of thousands of victims" whose
forced labor aided the German war effort and made "illicit profits for
corporations that willingly accepted."
Weiss says a November court ruling in Germany made the
suit possible. The ruling lifted a ban that prevented former Nazi-era slaves
from seeking compensation from corporations. The suit cites "utterly
barbarous" conditions at the Cologne plant for the forced laborers from
France, Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Belgium and the Buchenwald concentration camp.
The suit says plaintiff Elsa Iwanowa was one of 2,000
children in Rostov, Russia, in the 1940s abducted to Germany by the Nazi army
to work as slaves. Assigned to Cologne, the suit says she drilled holes in
engine blocks for military trucks for three years but was never paid. Without
giving a monetary amount, the suit claims slave labor was "immensely
profitable" for Ford Werke and Ford.
Copyright 1998 by United Press
International. All rights reserved.
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